State champion West Morris Mendham volleyball sets eyes on the Tournament of Champions
MEDNHAM, N.J. (BVM) – After a truncated, if not a completely cancelled, 2020-21 season, high school teams from around the country were eager to get back to playing a complete allotment of games once things appeared to be on the way back to some sense of normalcy. That sentiment is surely felt by the girls volleyball team of New Jersey’s West Morris Mendham High School (WMMHS).
As a result of the ongoing pandemic, the Minutemen’s season was delayed until March as opposed to the traditional fall high school sport schedule. Additionally, the team was only able to only play 16 games that season instead of the 28 games they have played thus far in the fall. Despite those obvious obstacles, the team was able to win the Central Jersey Group 3 State Tournament and make it all the way to the Tournament of Champions Final to Immaculate Heart before moving up a group at the start of the fall 2021 season.
Subsequent to what many considered a lost year, the Minutemen have relied on a trio of upperclassmen this year en route to a state tournament title and potential deep run in the Tournament of Champions (ToC). The three-pronged attack of senior Poppy Skjonnemand, junior Sarah Wilcock and senior Ania Trzesniowksi have combined for nearly 500 kills with Skjonnemand pacing the Minutemen with 206 while Wilcock and Trzesniowski have assisted on 307 and 272 of those kills, respectively.
After losing the first game of the season to Sparta, the Minutemen would proceed to go 19-2 in their next 21 games including a run all the way to the Morris County Tournament final. Playing well at the right time led West Morris Mendham to a relatively easy run in the state tournament, as the Minutemen did not drop a set until the Group 2 semifinal against Barnegat, that being the only time they did not win the game 2-0 in their five-game path to the Group 2 crown.
The Minutemen have been one of the most dominant teams in New Jersey girls volleyball from day one. They have continued that supremacy with a late-season hot streak as they are on a five-game winning streak. The Minutemen will look to go 2-1 in the tournament finals this year after losing to Roxbury in the Morris County Tournament Final and beating Old Tappan in the state tournament Group 2 final on Nov. 13. The quest for a second trophy in the cabinet begins when they face off against Bogota in the preliminary round of the ToC.
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