Shortly after Kearny’s three-set loss to Hoboken in the final of the Hudson County Tournament on Friday night, Kardinals head coach Ashley Latushko made sure they knew it was ok to feel hurt over what happened. But it had to be done before Monday.
That’s because with four regular season games remaining before the start of the state tournament on May 28, there’s so much left this Kearny team can accomplish.
“I told the boys it was okay to feel how they were feeling in that moment and the next day, but after that, we need to bounce back, especially with seeing Hoboken again on Monday,” said Latushko. “We worked way too hard to get to where we are, they have worked way too hard to make a name for themselves this season to let it all go after the county tournament.”
Up until Friday’s defeat, Kearny had won 14 of its previous 15 matches, a stretch that included HCT victories over Bayonne in the quarterfinals and Hudson Catholic in the semifinals last week.
But unlike those prior matches, the top-seeded Kardinals found themselves on the defensive early after dropping the first set 25-14.
Kearny bounced back in the second set, winning six of the first seven points and never looking back en route to a 25-19 win to force a decisive third set.
Hoboken and Kearny were tied 5-all in the third set before the Redwings pulled away, scoring the next four points to take the lead for good. In the end, Hoboken scored eight of the final 12 points to take the third set, 25-14, for its first ever Hudson County title and denying Kearny’s bid for its first since 2022.
“We just lost our momentum mentally and couldn’t bounce back after a few errors,” Latushko said. “We couldn’t catch up after that and that’s what the game came down to. Hoboken played with intensity and didn’t let our game control theirs.”
David Duffo paced Kearny (14-3) with 10 kills while Caleb Baptista and Mark Saravia added eight and six respectively. Isael Quintero had 31 assists in defeat.
Hoboken (18-4) was led by the one-two attack of Jack Jennings (12 kills, nine digs) and Gabriel Brody (11 kills, 13 digs), while Denilson Carino added 31 assists.
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)