OCEAN CITY – At the beginning of the season, coach Jillian Garza was bullish about her volleyball team’s prospects, but even she didn’t expect where her Red Raiders would be now.
“I’m very, very proud of what we’re building, and I’m so, so proud of my team,” Garza said. “I did not expect to be this far ahead. It’s wonderful, though.”
The Ocean City High School volleyball team improved its record to 14-1 with a 2-0 victory over visiting Hammonton Monday afternoon.
“I think it’s great for our team and it’s great for our program being only a third-year varsity team,” Garza said. “The fact that we’re doing so well really speaks volumes of the hard work that the girls are putting in and how important it is to them and how important it is to us as coaches.”
Garza’s team is almost entirely comprised of juniors with one senior, sophomore and freshman.
“We’re still winning so that’s great,” the coach said before the match against the Blue Devils, which the girls won 25-8, 25-17.
“I think the one we were anticipating to be the real challenge was OLMA this past Friday, but we came out on top and we beat them. It was a great game, such a good, back-and-forth game.”
Our Lady of Mercy Academy is 12-3, atop the American Division and sporting the second best record in the Cape-Atlantic League – behind Ocean City, which leads the National Division.
The Ocean City girls lost the first set 25-20 to OLMA, but came back and won the second 25-18 and then the third, 25-13.
Bradee Boyd had 23 kills and 13 digs in the game; Cassidy Derrickson, 14 service points and 13 assists; Brynn Williams, 11 assists, 11 service points and seven kills; Rylee Boyd, 15 assists to go with her eight digs and five service points; and Gabrielle Erace, eight digs, three assists and two service points.
That spread in stats from the OLMA match is reflected throughout the season.
“We have a lot of team leaders this year,” Garza said. “Actually, it’s funny, I feel like every other game, we’re making a poster for a girl for a career amount of kills or career assists or career digs, and it’s awesome. Gabby Erace and Brynn Williams both hit 300 digs this season.
“Bradee Boyd is now on the court. She didn’t play the first half of the season. I think she’s three or four matches into the season and she already has 63 kills, which is amazing,” the coach added.
“Everyone’s honestly doing so great,” Garza said. “We have one freshman on the varsity team this year, Rylee Boyd, and she’s been amazing.
“What’s really nice about this team is they’re amazing athletes, but they’re also really, really good girls. They get along so well and they work together, they build each other up every day and they encourage each other,” Garza said. “It’s inspirational. I love seeing it.”
Last season, the girls finished with a 10-14 record and were the ninth seed in the South Jersey Group III sectional playoffs. They beat the No. 8 seed, but then had to face No. 1 seed and eventual South Jersey champ Moorestown in the second round.
A higher seed should be coming this season.
“We’re all really looking forward to playoffs and I think that we have a really good chance this year to go pretty far,” she said.
“If we keep this up, our first round, hopefully, we play at home and we just kind of get some momentum going with playoffs,” Garza said.
With only five more games on the schedule, the coach said she’d like to get a few more in before playoffs begin.
“We’re not quite full, so can we put that out there if anyone wants to play us, we do have some spots available.”
The Red Raider volleyball team is at Cape May Tech Wednesday and at St. Joseph Academy Thursday. The next home match is 5:15 p.m. Tuesday versus Oakcrest.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
