On a night when the program’s three seniors were honored, the boy’s volleyball team halted their four-match losing streak with a 2-0 win over Woodrow Wilson.
“I think it’s the mindset. Last year, we had some talent, but not everybody was completed focused and dedicated,” senior Pat McCarthy said of the difference between the 2015 team and the 2016 team.
“This year, mostly everyone’s main sport is volleyball. Guys were playing club and took it seriously this year and I think that’s the difference for us this year.”
Cinnaminson is now 14-10 overall and 5-3 in the Olympic-National Division.
The Pirates have two more division matches remaining against Camden and Camden Academy Charter.
“Beating Collingswood was huge. Beating them once this year was huge because they’re our biggest rival for the past 11 years,” Head coach Robert Spier said. “Had we not lost the first game of the season we’d have an even better shot at winning the division.”
The first set Monday was a back-and-forth affair between the Pirates and Tigers early, but Cinnaminson pulled away for a 25-14 victory.
The Pirates held an 11-10 lead on the Tigers during the match’s first timeout. From that point on, Cinnaminson dominated, opening up a 20-13 lead before outscoring the Tigers 5-1 to win the set.
The second set was not as close, with the Pirates jumping out to an 11-5 lead.
The Pirates doubled their lead to 20-10 before outscoring the Tigers 5-4 to win the second set 25-14 to take the match 2-0.
Plenty of younger players have been getting time in varsity matches this season as Coach Spier has had to blend veterans with rookies throughout the year.
“With the numbers we get, they have a good opportunity freshman year to get a lot of time, a lot of meaningful time,” McCarthy said. “It definitely wasn’t easy, but it worked out.”
Aside from key division matches left, the Pirates will also take part in the third leg of the Backyard Brawl at Pennsauken and the WJVL Tournament at Moorestown.
“We just want to play well,” Spier said of the remaining schedule. “If we play as hard as we played against Sterling, we can beat these teams we have left on the schedule. That’s going to propel us into the playoffs and through the playoffs.”
The four-match losing streak snapped today included losses to Pennsauken Tech, West Windsor-Plainsboro South, Sterling and Kingsway.
“I always love to schedule a hard schedule. I go out of my way to find top 10 teams to play,” Spier said. “I want them to see what the potential is in the future, in the playoffs, and what the good teams in the state look like. Better to know now than to be shocked when we see them in the playoffs.”
The Pirates have put themselves in excellent position for the playoffs after reeling off nine straight wins after starting the season on a 1-4 clip.
“I think we just started playing to our potential a little bit more,” McCarthy said. “At the beginning of the season we were nowhere close to where we are now. I still don’t think we’ve played our best game yet.”
“We face great competition. Playing those teams (Collingswood, Sterling, Pennsauken, Pennsauken Tech and Moorestown) gets us ready for playoff games.”
Coach Spier offered his thoughts on the win streak:
“They started to believe in themselves. Once they started to believe in themselves, they all started to chip in,” Spier said.
“The first five games we relied on one person to do everything. After that, we told the rest of the guys, ‘you all are very good.’ They started to play as a team, play hard and believe in themselves.”
Follow Cinn City Sports on Twitter for news, scores and live updates from games throughout each season. Like Cinn City Sports on Facebook. Sign-up for our daily newsletter, which arrives daily at 8am with the previous day’s stories, on the homepage.
