Going into this state tournament Colonia knew it wouldn’t be easy. They entered as the #6 seed with a healthy squad, which helped to their advantage. Their side of the bracket is not impossible for them to break through although they will have to watch out for the #3 seed Fair Lawn who is hot right now and has only suffered 3 defeats this whole season.
Colonia boys’ volleyball defeats Randolph by a score of 2-0. In the state tournament. Colonia moves on to the quarterfinals where they will take a trip to Fair Lawn looking to upset the #3 seed. This match will take place on May 29 at Fair Lawn High School. Colonia will look to get all the support they can.
Colonia dominated this match not letting Randolph gain any momentum. Daniel Latkowski had 10 kills, as well as 2 blocks. Noah Sims added on to that with 23 assists. Colonia will need key players to step up. Season stat leaders include Matthew McSorley with 174 kills, Noah Sims with 156, and Daniel Latkowski with a staggering 249. Matthew Bumanglag had 19 assists in their last meeting with Fair Lawn, Daniel Latkowski had 9 kills and 2 blocks. These players are key for Colonia to complete the upset as the #6 seed.
Colonia’s next match will be tough as they’ve already faced Fair Lawn in the regular season, although losing 2-0. Fair Lawn has only lost 3 games this season, Colonia looks to put up a dogfight in this post-season match-up. Colonia will need key players to step up. They will look to limit Fair Lawns senior Christos Tsakarakis who led the team second in kills. As well as Benjamin Braudo who Lead the Team in kills with a staggering 315.
Colonia had an unfortunate defeat to Fair Lawn. Not being able to win a single set, Fair Lawn dominated the competition. In the first set, Fair Lawn won 25-14 and in the second set they won 25-18, this gave Fair Lawn the season sweep over Colonia. Fair Lawn kept Colonia’s star players silent, holding Daniel Latkowski to only 5 kills. Fair Lawn will attend Hackensack #2 seed on Friday, May 31st in the North Jersey Group 3 state semi-final.
Colonia will graduate 4 seniors this year. They look to follow a winning record next year, they finished this year 16-12, finishing 5th in the GMC red division. They will have a good core of players who played this year that include, including juniors Daniel Latkowsi and Isahah Barber who were in the shadow this year of some veteran senior players.
