October 21, 2006 – East Brunswick Wins Junior Varsity Tournament
East Brunswick junior varsity team capped off the season with a magnificant victory in the Junior Varsity Tournament at West Windsor Plainsboro South. The Bears won 6 out of 9 games in the pool play to be seeded 2nd for the single elimination phase of the tournament. Things did not look good for East Brunswick when they rapidly fell behind 8-0 in a 15 point game. When they finally broke Hunterdon Central’s serve, Deanna Acosta came up to serve and got the Bears right back into the game. East Brunswick managed to get to 15 first. The next game was a 21 point game against Old Bridge. The game was very close the whole way, but Mary Ruffner made a key block that helped put the Bears over the top. The finals were between South Brunswick and East Brunswick. The Vikings had just beaten the Bears in two games the day before, so perhaps they were a bit over confident. East Brunswick played strong right from the start. Colleen Murphy, the setter was doing a great job of placing the ball for Nicole Venezia to make some good kills. With the game tied 10-10, Jing Cao came up to serve and that was the end for South Brunswick. Jing served a number of aces and even when South Brunswick was able to get the ball back over, the Bears kept getting to everything. The final score was 25-11.
Championship JV Team: From left, Sam Keegan, Sandy Cao, Shirley Li, Deanna Acosta, Mary Ruffner, Candace Riggs (holding trophy), Jen Zavoda, Nicole Venezia, Colleen Murphy, Jing Cao and Rena Mamroud. Click for full sized image
