McKenna then whacked a pair of kills to force Howell into a timeout with the score 24-22. Southern regained the lead on the next point then a Howell error made it 22-20.

Two kills from McKenna gave the Rams a 20-19 lead, but Mullen hammered a ball down the left sideline to again knot up the scoring. After another Romano serve missed its mark, the Rams climbed back into the game, mainly on the shoulders of McKenna.Īfter the Rebels made a pair of errors to make it an 18-16 game, Kean delivered his only ace of the match to cut the deficit to a point before Southern tied things up at 18-18. In the second game, Howell did exactly the same as it had twice during the conference final, utilizing the prowess of Patrick Mullen, who had several aces and kills early on, to build a 17-11 lead. In the first game, the Rebels (17-5) and Rams (29-1) were tied after 20 points, 10-10, but Howell’s next serve, from Brent Romano, sailed out of bounds to make it 11-10 and Southern ran with it, pushing the lead to 21-14 before Lucas Kean smashed three consecutive kills to close out the set and put his team up, 1-0. We had to really bring it today, especially on our home court.”īIG TIME: Southern Regional junior Jack McKenna sends a serve toward the opposite side of the net during the Rams’ 2-0 win against Howell in the sectional quarterfinals. Today, losing to Howell wasn’t an option. “But after going three sets with them last week, we knew we had to play better. “When we played Howell last week, it helped a lot that it was just the Shore Conference Tournament,” said Jack McKenna, who lit up Howell’s defense for 11 kills and a block in the state tourney showdown. But because Howell legitimately came within a couple of points of knocking off Southern in the SCT, the Rams had to refocus themselves, knowing that it was one-and-done the rest of the way. In previous years, blowing through a ninth seed wasn’t an issue. Our guys were really dialed in during practice the past few days, even on Memorial Day.” This was a great test for us in the quarterfinals, one we don’t usually get this early, and it helped us really focus now. “This was a whole different set of circumstances, and it was to our advantage.

“We had a week to prepare, with nobody else in front of us to get in the way, and it was on our home court,” said head coach Eric Maxwell after his top-seeded Rams ousted the ninth-seeded Rebels, 25-16, 25-22. In fact, the circumstances worked against the Rebels. Last week when the Rams and Rebels met in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV quarterfinals, there were no surprises. No, the Rebels didn’t win the SCT title, but the Rams learned a lot about their opponents that evening. (Photos by David Biggy)Īfter Colts Neck took the Southern Regional boys volleyball team into a third game, before the Rams ultimately put away the Cougars in the Shore Conference Tournament semifinals, Howell snuck up on Southern in the final. POUND AWAY: Southern Regional senior Lucas Kean delivers a big hit against a wall of Howell defenders during the Rams’ 25-16, 25-22 win over the Rebels in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV quarterfinals on May 31.

Rebels of southeastern conference