ROCKAWAY - The Morris Hills High School girls volleyball team lost its 20th match of the season on Friday, Oct. 31, when the Lady Knights traveled to Randolph and dropped a 2-0 decision to the Lady Rams.
    Morris Hills is now 2-20 for the season; Randolph improved to 15-10.

Lady Knights lose a close one
    ROCKAWAY - Morris Hills came close to pulling an upset in high school girls volleyball when the Lady Knights lost a 2-1 (25-11, 19-25, 25-22) decision to Whippany Park at Whippany Park on Thursday, Oct. 29.
    Alexis DeSa had three kills, two blocks and an ace; Colleen Monahan finished with seven kills and one block; and Bethany Young had 12 assists and three aces for Morris Hills.
    The Lady Knights are now 2-19 while Whippany Park improved to 13-10.  

Lady Knights bow to county power Mendham
    ROCKAWAY - The Morris Hills High School girls volleyball team faced Morris County Tournament runnerup Mendham on Wednesday, Oct. 28, and lost a 2-0 (25-15, 15-12) decision to the  Lady Minutemen.
    The loss was the Lady Knights’ 18th in 20 matches; Mendham improved to 17-2. 

Hills wins to halt 13-match losing streak
    ROCKAWAY - Thirteen was enough for the Morris Hills High School volleyball team. "Thirteen" as in 13 straight losses the Lady Knights' team record skidding to 1-18.
    On Friday, Oct. 23, with loss No. 19 staring them in the face after losing a 25-17 first game decision to Morris Catholic at Morris Catholic, the Lady Knights came back with 25-23 and 25-20 wins in the second and third games to nail down a 2-1 victory.
   Alexis DeSa had seven kills, one block and six aces for Morris Hills; Casey DeSa also finished with seven kills; Veronica McClain had four kills and two assists; and Lexi Rewick finished with three kills, six digs and an ace to get the Lady Knights back on the winning track.
    Morris Catholic slipped to 4-19 with the loss.

Mendham, Mount Olive stop Hills
    ROCKAWAY - The Morris Hills High School volleyball team - mired in a 15-game losing streak - played host to county power Mendham on Monday, Oct. 19, and visited Mount Olive on Wednesday, Oct. 21 and could only extend the losing streak to 17 games with a pair of 2-0 losses.
    On Monday, the Lady Knights lost to Mendham at Mendham, 25-17, 25-14 and on Wednesday, Mount Olive was the culprit in a 25-9, 25-23 victory.
   
Morris Hills 'Digs Pink"
    ROCKAWAY - The Morris Hills High School volleyball team lost to Parsippany Hills, 2-0 (25-17, 25-20) in a match played at Morris Hills on Friday, Oct. 16.
    Alexis DeSa finished with three kills, one assist and two aces for the Lady Knights. Casey DeSa had two kills and two digs; Dominique Lopez had three digs; and Bethan Young had three digs and six assists.
    Morris Hills is 1-16 and Parsippany Hills improved to 5-11.
    Before, during and after the match, the Lady Knights had a "Dig Pink" event where the players sold T-shirts, had a bake sale and accepted donations for breast cancer awareness.

Lady Knights fall to Pope John
    ROCKAWAY - The Morris Hills High School girls volleyball team continues to play close matches but is still looking for its second victory over the season.
    On Thursday, Oct. 15, the Lady Knights lost their 14th match in 15 outings as they fell to Pope John, 2-0 (25-21, 25-17) in a match played at Pope John.
    Alexis DeSa finished with five kills, a block and four aces for Morris Hills while Bethany Young had three digs and seven assists and Colleen Monahan had three kills.
    Pope John improved to 3-13 with the victory.

MH Coach optimistic despite defeat
    ROCKAWAY - The loss was the 13th in a one-win season to date, but Morris Hills High School girls volleyball coach Christina Hobson anticipates better things down the road ... and soon.
    The Lady Knights played host to Vernon on Tuesday, Oct. 13, and saw their record dip to 1-13 with a 2-0 (25-17, 25-18) loss to the visitors.
    Still, Hobson showed more optimism than usual after the match.
    "This is the best we have played," Hobson said. "The girls really worked well together as a team both offensively and defensively.
    "They were really going for the ball and swinging at the ball and I'd have to rate this match as a successful one overall. If the girls continue to play and work hard as well as play this well together, then I'm sure we'll be looking a some wins here very soon."
    Hobson said Chelsea Talbot and Emily Gallagher "... had fantastic defensive games with five kills each ... and they both served well throughout the game."
    Freshman Casey DeSa finished with four kills; Bethany Young had one dig and 10 assists; Veronica McClain had one kill and one block; and Alexis DeSa had two kills, one ace and three blocks, "... three MAJOR blocks," according to Hobson.


Knights lose 'longest game' 

     ROCKAWAY - The Morris Hills High School girls volleyball team lost a 2-0 decision to Dover at Dover on Saturday, Oct. 10, in a match that featured the longest game in Morris County this fall.
     The teams opened with Dover winning the first game, 30-28, in a game that seemed would never end. The Lady Tigers won the second game with a more conventional 25-19 score.
    Alexis DeSa finished with six kills, one block and one act for the Lady Knights while Taylor Jowziak had five kills and Bethany Young finished with nine assists, two aces and one dig.    

Knights bow to Sparta
      ROCKAWAY - The Morris Hills High School girls volleyball team lost a 2-0 (25-21, 25-15) decision to Sparta at Sparta on Friday, Oct. 9.
      Alexis DeSa had four kills, two aces and one block for the Lady Knights while Emily Gallagher finished with six digs.
      Morris Hills is 1-12 on the season; Sparta improved to 5-7 with the win.

Hills falls to county-power Mendham
     ROCKAWAY - The Morris Hills High School girls volleyball team went up against county power Mendham on their home court Wednesday, Oct. 7, and came out of the fray with a 2-0 loss as the home team won games by 25-12 and 25-17.
    For Morris Hills - which fell to 1-11 on the season - Alexis DeSa had three kills; Colleen Monahan had two kills and one block; and Bethany Young finished with four assists and one ace.
    Mendham, the second seed in the county tournament, improved to 11-1.

Coach sees some  spark in loss to Roxbury
     ROCKAWAY - Morris Hills lost its girls high school volleyball match to Roxbury, 2-0, by identical 25-17 scores, but Lady Knights' coach Christina Hobson was pleased with what she saw during the match held at Morris Hills on Monday, Oct. 5.
      "The scores of both games were the same, but each game had a different good feeling about for us," Hobson explains. "In the first game, we were playing them even until they had two girls step up and server lights-out on us to clean up the game in their favor.
     "In the second game, we got down by six and then 10 points but we had some girls start to pick it up that changed the energy of the game for us ... the end of the game was very competitive.
    "Dominique Lopez came out like a ball of fire, running all over the court to get balls ... she also came up with some great back-row attacks that resulted in some tough points.
     "Alexis DeSa also had a great game for us, staying aggressive the entire time and finishing with six kills and one ace."
      Bethany Young finished with two digs, seven assists and two aces "... and had a solid setting game," Hobson said. "We had our moments ... and I?m sure we?ll have them again."
      Morris Hills fell to 1-10 on the season with the loss; Roxbury improved to 5-7.

Montville tops Hills
    ROCKAWAY - Morris Hills came back strong in the second game but still fell short in a 2-0 loss to Montville in a high school girls volleyball match played at Morris Hills on Friday, Oct. 2.
      After losing the first game 25-15, the Lady Knights stayed with their visitors in the second game only to fall two points shy in a 26-24 loss that decided the match.
      Bethany Young finished with eight assists, Emily Gallagher had three digs and two aces; and Casey DeSa had three kills and a dig for Morris Hills (1-9).   

Lady Knights bow, 2-1
    ROCKAWAY - Morris Hills - with one win in its first eight matches - went up against Parsippany Hills - with one win in its first seven matches - in a match at Morris Hills on Wednesday, Sept. 30, that both teams felt they had a chance to win.
     In the end, Morris Hills fell to 1-8 and Parsippany Hills improved to 2-6 with a 2-1 victory in which the visitors had to rally from a game down to win.
     Morris Hills won the first game 25-18, but Par Hills came back strong in the next two games to them 25-20 and 25-17 to pull out the victory.
     "The match was a good one," said Morris Hills coach Christina Hobson. "Our girls played very well together and it was a competitive match throughout.
     "It was too bad we couldn't pull it out in the third game but we had a few errors that cost us near the end. On a positive note, though, the girls are all swinging hard and hustling to make sure they get to every single ball."
    Alexis DeSa had seven kills and four aces for the Lady Knights. Emily Gallagher finished with two kills, two aces and two digs; Bethany Young had one kill, an ace, and five assists; Colleen Monahan had four kills; and Dominique Lopez had one kill, two aces and one dig.
     The No. 20 seed Lady Knights are scheduled to play their first match in the 2009 Morris County Girls Volleyball Tournament on Thursday, Oct. 1, against No. 13 seed Whippany Park at Whippany Park High School.
     For the complete tourney seeding list and early-rounds schedule, please visit the "MCT Seeds, Skeds" page on this site.

MH loses to to county power Morristown
     ROCKAWAY - The Morris Hills High School girls volleyball team ran up against county power and once-beaten (7-1) Morristown and dropped a 2-0 (25-11, 25-8) decision in a match played at Morristown on Tuesday, Sept. 29.
     Alexis DeSa finished with three kills and one assist; Bethany Young had one kill, one assist and one dig; and Daniela Chavez had two digs and an assist for the Lady Knights (1-7).
     Morris Hills was seeded 20th in the 21-team that makes up the 2009 Morris County Girls Volleyball Tournament. For the complete seeding story plus preliminary matchups, please return to the Home Page and click on the "MCT Seeds, Sked"  page on the menu bar.

Lady Knights win first of season
      ROCKAWAY - Christina Hobson really liked the way her Morris Hills High School girls volleyball team came back from a disappointing second-game loss to Pope John in their match at Sparta on Thursday, Sept. 24.
      The final result was a 2-1 victory for the Lady Knights, their first of the season after opening with five losses.
     Morris Hill won the first game, 25-23, but then lost the second by the same score.
     The third game was all Morris Hills - a 25-14 victory - and the Lady Knights came home very pleased with their first win of the season.
     The Lady Knights didn't let their close loss in the second game get them down as they came out for the third game and played with the intensity they needed to pull out the victory.
     "The girls played very well together," said Hobson, in her second full season as head coach of the Lady Knights' program. "The first two games were hard fought and were very close throughout.
     "But in the third game, the girls bounced back ... they opened it up down the stretch and came away with the victory!?
     Bethany Young and Alexis DeSa had big games for the Lady Knights - Young finishing with an ace, two kills, 11 assists and one dig and DeSa recording four aces, six kills, one assist and two blocks.
     Chelsea Talbot had two aces and three digs; Emily Gallagher had a kill, one ace and three digs; and Stacy Fremeth finished with a kill, one ace and two digs.

The ball is in Morris Hills' court as Bethany Young (left) gets ready to pass and Daniela Chavez waits to spring into action
 Photo by Vince Zvolensky

Lady Knights fall
to MK 'friends'

      ROCKAWAY - It was Morris Knolls vs. Morris Hills ... teacher vs. pupil ... friend vs. friend ... established high school volleyball program vs. new program.
      In the end, Morris Knolls won, 2-0 (25-20, 25-18) in front of a crowded Morris Hills gym on a Wednesday (Sept. 16) afternoon that brought out one of the biggest crowds of students Knolls coach Dave DeNure has seen at one of his high school matches.
       Knolls closed both sets with strong runs to win its fourth in a row after an opening day loss; Hills is now 0-3.
      "We usually get a lot of family but this match brought out a lot of the girls friends - on both teams - and there was a lot of good-natured heckling going on," Denure was saying the afternoon after the match. "The girls noticed it, too ... they told me later they were afraid to make a mistake because they knew they would get called on it and laughed at by their friends who went to Morris Hills."
      That was what made the match special - the friend vs. friend part. 
      "A lot of these kids grew up together, went to school together, played on the same team," DeNure said. "And now they are playing against each other."
      Most of the girls on both teams attended summer volleyball camp, a camp run by DeNure and Hobson. Hobson was DeNure's assistant at Knolls for five years before taking the job at Hills. Hobson still teaches at Knolls, where she runs into DeNure daily.
      "I wish her the best and I hope her team does well ... just not against us," DeNure said with a laugh. "I told her after the match that her team has a nice defense - and I meant it."
      Hobson, in turn, thinks that DeNure is a "... very talented coach, someone from whom I learned a lot about the sport.
      "Having the chance to take what I learned from him at Knolls and create my own program at Hills has been extremely rewarding," Hobson added. "I love coaching here ... the girls give me their all day in and day out and I couldn't ask for more from them."
       Morris Hills is a second-year varsity program that finished 10-10 playing an independent schedule last year last year. The Lady Eagles are in the National Division of the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) this season.
      This is the seventh season for Morris Knolls'  volleyball program - all under DeNure - and the Lady Eagles are in the big school American Division of the NJAC this season. Knolls was 5-15 last year, its first losing season.
      The loss to Knolls was the third in as many matches for the Lady Knights this season. Morris Hills lost each of its first two matches in three sets and was in each of the sets against Knolls - the teams were tied at 20-20 in the first set before Knolls closed out the set with a five-point run and Hills held a 16-14 lead in the second set only to see Knolls close with a 11-2 burst.
     "Last year's team might have lost both of those sets," Denure said. 'We were pretty new last year and we didn't do as well as I thought we should do and the kids felt the same way."
     Knolls lost its best offensive player - Kaylee Monga - to graduation but has everybody else back. And they are playing better.
     "This year, we're winning matches at the end," DeNure explained. "Last year, we were losing them."
      Hobson was pleased with her team's effort and feels it's just a matter of time Hills will start winning, in spite of its more demanding NJAC schedule.
      "The girls give me their all day in and day out," Hobson said. "I couldn't ask for more from them.
     "They came to play against Knolls and it was a hard-fought match ... no points were easy. Both side played well."
     Morris Knolls junior Veronika Todd certainly played well when it counted as her back-to-back kills sparked a six-point run that gave the Lady Eagles the lead for good in the second set.
      Todd finished with six kills; senior Nicole Mallotides had four kills and four aces; and senior Cara Otten finished with three kills and three aces.
      For Morris Hills, junior Alexis DeSa had four kills and one block; senior Bethany Young had three assists; senior Colleen Monahan had three kills and one block; and junior Taylor Jozwiak finished with three kills.
      NOTES: Terry Reilly is DeNure's assistant ... the rest of the Lady Eagles roster includes Chelsea Ambrosi, Becky Hedden, Chelsea Williams, Keri Bongo, Julia Coccia, Maria Faubert, Lauren Jackson, Angela Maioran, Meghan Martinsen, Mary Ninivvaggi, Caitlin O'Connor, Vanessa Pulice, Alexis Seijas and Michelle Williams ... Hobson's assistant coaches are Danja Wilpert and Shelley Streed ... the rest of the Lady Knights roster consists of Daniela Chavez, Shelby Clark, Casey DeSa, Stacy Fremeth, Emily Gallagher, Dominique Lopez, Veronica McClain, Shana Pearson, Zeno Sulejmeni and Chelsea Talbot.

Morris Hills head coach Christina Hobson (left) and assistants Danja Wilpert (center) and Shelley Streed watch the action as time runs out on their 2-0 loss to Morris Knolls.
 Photo by Vince Zvolensky

Another close loss for MH

       ROCKAWAY - The Morris Hills High School girls volleyball team is 0-2 in three-set matches after falling to St. Elizabeth, 2-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-19), at Hills on Monday, Sept. 14.
       Dominique Lopez had five aces; Colleen Monahan had six kills; and Alexis Desa finished with five kills for the Lady Knights.
       Morris Hills (0-2) opened its season on Friday, Sept. 11, with a 2-1 loss to Montville. The Lady Knights won the first game, 25-21, but lost the next two games by idential 25-19 scores.

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A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Celebrate
Our 30th
Anniversary
With Us!

     When Anthony Camagnola calls his place of employment a "family restaurant," he means it in more ways than one.
     Anthony and his father Pat opened Anthony's Pizzeria & Restaurant in downtown Rockaway in 1979 and younger brother Robert became a part-owner in 1987.
     Anthony's wife Theresa and their three children - Anthony Jr., Joey and Rose - also work with their parents. Fact is, you might see Anthony Jr. with a hammer or saw in his hands by day and waiting on tables by night during renovations this summer.
     "It's a family business, true ... but we also like to consider our customers part of our family, too," Anthony says. "We've met a lot of good people here in the 30 years we've been open."
     The Camagnola attract and keep customers by offering ample portions of carefully prepared Italian food at reasonable prices.
     Chef Scott Rumor has been with the restaurant for 20 years and has turned out one mouth-watering special after another.
     Not only is the food delicious, the portions are HUGE. Don't be surprised if you take home part of your dinner. "This will be my lunch tomorrow," is heard quite often after another satisfied customer put down his fork.
     Call ahead for takeout or stop in for a nice Italian dinner.
     There's pizza - from thin crust and well done to one of Anthony's "specialty pies" covered with a wide variety of toppings.
     Try a calzone, a hot or cold sandwich, one of many pasta dishes and don't forget a cup or bowl of  soup, a salad or an appetizer.
     Private parties can be arranged ... ask to see their catering menu ... discounts are given on large pizza orders for team parties, schools or businesses ... MasterCard, Visa and Discover are now accepted.
     Anthony's is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday; and from noon to 10 p.m. on Sunday.
     Come visit ... help the Camagnolas celebrate their 30 years in Rockaway.

In photo above, Casey DeSa (left) and Colleen Monahan go up to block a Morris Knolls return. Below, Monahan (left) goes into action on her own as DeSa provides backup.
Photos by Vince Zvolensky

MH falls to county power

     ROCKAWAY - The Lady Knights of Morris Hills are still looking for their first volleyball win of the high school season after dropping a 2-0 (25-12, 25-8) decision to unbeaten county power West Morris at West Morris on Thursday, Sept. 16.
     Alexis DeSa, Colleen Monaham and Chelsea Talbot each had one kill for the Lady Knights and Chelsea Talbot had one ace.
     The loss put Morris Hills at 0-4; West Morris is 4-0.