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With a young team, Royal Knights know tweaks are likely

By JOHN C. COTEY and ERIC MUSKATEVC
Published August 31, 2006

	[Times photo: Brendan Fitterer]
	Sophomore Alex Laton is a tall presence at net for River Ridge, which is fairly young this season, but still undefeated.

As a coach who has won five-straight conference titles and four-straight district titles, River Ridge's Heidi Castelamare says she knows it's up to her to make adjustments. So on Tuesday night, when Ridgewood put the Royal Knights in a hole for the first time this season, Castelamare did some adjusting.

In between the 24-26 loss in the opening game and Game 2, Castelamare had the team run from baseline to baseline for the three minutes of intermission. That certainly shook up the Knights, who won the next three games 25-21, 25-15, 25-6. Overall, River Ridge is 12-1 in games, and 4-0 for the season in matches.

"They're kind of a happy-go-lucky bunch of girls. We're young so I expect some inconsistencies, but I know it's up to me to make changes in certain situations," Castelamare said.

The coach wasn't the only one displeased about losing a game.

"It really pushed us out there," said junior Brittney Frey, one of several juniors and sophomores trying to keep the Knights ahead of the class despite graduating four starters. "We didn't like to lose that one, and we didn't want to have to run after it, but we really focused and Coach knows how to get us to do that."

The Knights, under the leadership of lone senior Joy Barquin and the coach's daughter, junior Brooke Castelamare, have the task of replacing the 2004-05 Times Player of the Year, Brittany Castelamare, the coach's other daughter who now plays for South Florida. Besides their ability to run, Frey and sophomores Alex Laton and Rachel Tate are all 5-10 in height at the net.

PATIENT GATORS: Land O'Lakes is itching to prove it can hang this year with the county's best teams - Hudson, Mitchell and River Ridge - but will have to wait a while.

The Gators don't play River Ridge until Sept. 12, Hudson Sept. 25 and Mitchell Oct. 9.

The schedule hasn't revealed much this season, but Gators coach Jessica McCoy gladly will take her 4-0 start.

"Until we play (the top three teams), we don't know," said McCoy, whose team is led by outside hitter Jessica Bryant (31 kills), middle hitter Kayli Keough (32 kills) and setter Katie Lahti (34 assists).

The Gators have handled Bishop McLaughlin, Ridgewood, Central and Cambridge so far. But the county schedule has been void of any big matches so far.

None of the top four teams have played each other this season. Hudson doesn't play Mitchell or River Ridge until the final games of the season (Oct. 10 and 12), though the season will crank it up next week when Mitchell hosts River Ridge.

FIGHTING RAMS: Ridgewood (0-3) is finding it difficult to replace last year's talented group.

"We're trying to be (scrappy)," said coach Amber Starkey, in her third season. "We don't have a lot of offense, so I've been stressing defense to the girls."

In Tuesday night's loss to River Ridge, it was the one game they won that had Starkey encouraged. While the Knight's were often more organized and on the attack, the Rams sat back and dug. Tipping balls over River Ridge's blocking schemes, the Rams found spots on the floor where the Knights weren't.

"This is the second-year of volleyball for some of these girls," said Starkey, who lost five seniors from 2005's district runnerups.

Jen Daun is a sizable net protector as a junior but it will be the sporadic play of seniors Ali Carli and Meghan Seltman that will help the Rams find ways to win.

[Last modified August 31, 2006, 05:59:28]