ERMA — Head coach Grace Pacevich expects her Caper Tiger girls volleyball team will be heading into a rebuilding year.
But it’s not this year.
This season she has a majority of seniors and juniors leading the team this season. Only four are returning varsity players, but there is a lot of experience among them.
The coach’s daughter, Addie Pacevich, has a lot of that experience. She’s the team’s setter and was All-Conference last season. Another returning star is Ava Riggins, who forms the core of the team with Chely Candelario and Melinda Reeves.
The Caper Tiger girls were 8-4 in the Cape-Atlantic League National Division last season and 10-9 overall. They shut out Keyport 3-0 in the first round of the South Jersey Group I tournament before falling 3-2 in a hotly contested quarterfinal to LEAP Academy.
“I think we should do well this year because we only lost one senior that was really like a contributing factor,” Pacevich said. “After this year, well, it’ll definitely be rebuilding, but I’m excited for this year.”
“We’re scrappy, we’re quick. We have three powerful hitters,” the coach said. “They’re the best group of girls, such a great team. They support each other. They’re feisty, they don’t give up. It’s a joy to coach them.”
Adeline Pacevich is the starting setter; Candelario also is a setter and Riggins is an outside hitter. With Reeves at libero, the team has two new middles — Zoey Heany and Sahara Moore — and Ava Hernandez is a defensive specialist. Harley Siner and Georgia Shutter are hitters.
Pacevich and Candelario are the senior captains and Riggins is the junior captain.
“I’m really excited about what we’re going to be able to do this season,” Addie Pacevich said. “I think we have a lot of girls that came back and we’re looking really strong, so I’m super excited about that.”
She gave a shout-out to Riggins, who’s coming off “a wonderful club season. It’s been great working with her, and every single girl who’s come back out, like, they’re putting their heart into everything that they’re doing, and I just really appreciate all their effort and the smiles that they bring on the court every single day, because they make me really happy too.”
The younger Pacevich started playing volleyball in eighth grade when the school got a team, but has been around the sport since she was much smaller. Her parents met through volleyball at Stockton University, she noted.
“I kind of like grew to love it,” she said. “I used to play soccer, actually, and then I saw the community that we had with volleyball, and I was like, ‘I want to be part of that.’”
Interviewed just before the game against Ocean City, Pacevich said she was glad to be playing a good Group III team. (Ocean City was 28-2 last year, unbeaten in the CAL.)
“It’s honestly a wonderful experience just to be able to see what kind of competitive energy these other teams can bring onto the court,” she said. “Obviously, since we’re a smaller school, it’s like just cool to be able to put ourselves out there and show what we can do, but also just to gain like extra repetitions and experience from going up against harder teams.”
She’s hoping she and her teammates get the chance to compete for a South Jersey Group I title.
“I think that our team is definitely super strong and we have a bunch of returning kids this year, so we’re hoping to go pretty far with that,” Pacevich said. “I have a lot of hope and I know these girls want it a lot, and I do too.”
“Ironically,” according to the coach, the girls started the season with LEAP Academy, beating them 2-0 (25-9 and 25-16), but lost to Group III and CAL power Ocean City in straight sets a day later.
The girls showed their feistiness against the Red Raiders. They were down 9-3 in the first set but made it a game before falling 25-14. In the second set, they were down 11-3 but fought back to a 25-19 final.
The girls were hosting Mainland Regional Tuesday after the Star and Wave went to press, then they travel to Oakcrest on Sept. 10 and Absegami on Sept. 14, before returning home to host Hammonton at 5:15 p.m. Sept. 15.
By DAVID NAHAN/Cape May Star and Wave
