Union Catholic Volleyball Earns Top Seed in County Tournament

Union Catholic girls’ volleyball head coach Nancy Saggio said this year’s Union County Tournament is up for grabs.

She also felt her team deserved to be the top seed because it had not yet lost to a Union County opponent.

Well, the Vikings were awarded that honor at Tuesday night’s seeding meeting in Westfield, garnering the No. 1 seed.

Union Catholic, the defending champion and owners of six titles overall since 1998, will seek to repeat as the top seed.

Cranford was the defending champion last year and was seeking to repeat as the top seed, but the Cougars fell at Union Catholic 26-24, 17-25, 25-22 in the championship match.

Union Catholic won last year’s tournament for the first time in three years and did so as the second seed.

Roselle Catholic, which fell to Union Catholic 2-0 on Sept. 25, earned the second seed for this month’s event.

Cranford is the third seed. The Cougars became the first public school team from Union County to win a state championship when they captured Group 2 honors last year.

Union Catholic became the first school from Union County and the first parochial school to win a state title when the Cougars captured the Non-Public crown in 2005.

Cranford hosts Union Catholic next Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 4 p.m. in their only regular season matchup. The teams defeated each other at home before playing in last year’s UCT final.

Scotch Plains, which defeated Westfield 2-1, but lost to Roselle Catholic and Union Catholic 2-1, earned the fourth seed.

The rest of the Top 8 includes New Providence seeded fifth, Westfield sixth, Rahway seventh and Union eighth.

First round competition takes place this Friday and then the quarterfinals will be contested next Friday, Oct. 23. All of those matches will take place at the courts of the higher seeds.

For the second straight year the semifinals and final will take place at Union Catholic. The semifinals are Oct. 27 and the final Oct. 29.

Most people probably predicted a Cranford vs. Union Catholic matchup in last year’s final because they were the top two seeds and the strongest teams in Union County, with Union Catholic also getting to the Non-Public state championship match where it lost to Bergen County power Immaculate Heart, which finished as the No. 1 team in the state.

This year, the county seems to be a bit more balanced and less top heavy.

“You could say that,” Saggio said. “I think everyone expected it to be us and Cranford last year, but there are a lot of good teams this year.”

Union Catholic has wins over Roselle Catholic, Scotch Plains, Westfield and New Providence. The only Viking losses have come to Hunterdon Central, Science Park of Newark, Livingston and Old Tappan.

Roselle Catholic has wins against Scotch Plains, Cranford and New Providence. The only Lion setbacks have come to Livingston, Hillsborough, Union Catholic and East Brunswick.

Scotch Plains has made great strides to get to 9-4 so far, including a 2-1 win over Kearny Monday, with the scores being 26-24, 19-25, 25-16.

The Raiders reached the semifinals last year after beating Roselle Catholic 2-0 in quarterfinal round play at New Providence. Scotch Plains won the games 25-23, 27-25.

The sixth-seeded Raiders were then defeated by Union Catholic 2-0 in the semifinals at UC. The Vikings won the games 25-13, 25-22.

“We’ve improved this year and all four of our losses came in three games to tough opponents,” Scotch Plains head coach Adrienne Stack said.

“We feel that we can beat anybody we go up against.”

      Friday's eight first round matchups include:

      Top side of the bracket:

      12-Linden at 5-New Providence

      13-Summit at 4-Scotch Plains

      9-Dayton at 8-Union

      17-Plainfield/16-Roselle at 1-Union Catholic

      Bottom side of the bracket:

      10-Oak Knoll at 7-Rahway

      15-Johnson at 2-Roselle Catholic

      11-Elizabeth at 6-Westfield

      14-Kent Place at 3-Cranford

2009 GIRLS’ VOLLEYBALL

UNION COUNTY TOURNAMENT

SEEDS:

1-Union Catholic (9-4)

2-Roselle Catholic (10-4)

3-Cranford (9-4)

4-Scotch Plains (9-4)

5-New Providence (8-4)

6-Westfield (8-6)

7-Rahway (6-8)

8-Union (7-6)

9-Dayton

10-Oak Knoll

11-Elizabeth

12-Linden

13-Summit

14-Kent Place

15-Johnson

16-Roselle

17-Plainfield

PRELIMINARY ROUND:

Thursday, Oct. 15

17-Plainfield at 16-Roselle, 4 p.m.

FIRST ROUND:

Friday, Oct. 16

All eight matches are at higher seeds.

QUARTERFINALS:

Friday, Oct. 23

All four matches are at higher seeds.

SEMIFINALS:

At Union Catholic

Tuesday, Oct. 27

Bottom side of bracket match, 6 p.m.

Top side of bracket match, 7:30 p.m.

FINALS:

At Union Catholic

Thursday, Oct. 29

Junior varsity match, 6 p.m.

Varsity match, 7:30 p.m.

UCT CHAMPIONS THIS DECADE:

2008 – Union Catholic

2007 – Cranford

2006 – Westfield

2005 – Union Catholic

2004 – Rahway

2003 – Elizabeth

2002 – Union Catholic

2001 – Union Catholic

2000 – Union Catholic