MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The Columbia High School girls volleyball team, under head coach Juan Bas, is looking forward to the season.
Columbia defeated Nutley in the season opener on Saturday, Sept. 10.
The key returning players are Zoe Hall, junior, captain, outside hitter; Allie Harris, senior, captain, middle blocker; Julia Roses, senior, captain, setter; Paloma Duvergne, junior, setter; and Jamie Fardin, senior, captain, libero and defensive specialist.
The key newcomers to varsity, but not new to the program, are Sinikka Reynolds-Vickberg, sophomore, outside hitter; Maddy Casto, sophomore, middle blocker; and Anne Sullivan, junior, libero.
“We have a lot of club volleyball experience but mix of those with varsity experience and JV/freshman experience. Sinikka, Maddy, along with Corynna Manjos (sophomore, outside hitter) and Libby Kosik (sophomore, defensive specialist and outside hitter) were key parts of our undefeated freshman team from 2021. That freshman team won the Payne Tech JV tournament in 2021.
“The varsity won the (Super Essex Conference) Colonial Division last season at 11-1, and in season 3 with a record of 9-0 (when 2020 girls volleyball was played in spring 2021). We were back-to-back Colonial Division champs. We also did that in 2014 and 2015 (co-champs with Millburn).
“Grace Petroccia has joined our coaching staff as a volunteer assistant. Grace is CHS ’19 and played for me as a setter and she was a captain as well. Other coaches are David Crouch (JV) and Jon Trieu (freshman team).”
Columbia has moved up to the SEC–Liberty Division.
“Now that we’ve moved up, we want to compete and stay in the Liberty Division,” Bas said. “That’s the minimum. If we can do better than that, that would be icing on the cake. We hope to do well to qualify for states and have a good run in the county tournament.”
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