Girls volleyball Top 20
- Immaculate Heart (30-1)
- NV/Old Tappan (18-1)
- Dwight-Englewood (18-1)
- Ridgewood (18-2)
- Rutherford (22-1)
- NV/Demarest (13-4)
- Wayne Valley (18-4)
- River Dell (12-4)
- Bogota (17-5)
- Northern Highlands (18-7)
- Holy Angels (15-6)
- Tenafly (17-4)
- Pascack Hills (14-5)
- Passaic Tech (20-4)
- Hackensack (18-7)
- Ramapo (9-8)
- Ramsey (13-6)
- Wood-Ridge (18-3)
- Indian Hills (10-9)
- Park Ridge (15-4)
(Records entering Monday
►Oct. 24: NJIC Tournament final at Harrison, 6 and 7:30 p.m. — The final four schools all will be there, with the losing teams from Monday’s semifinals playing in the third-place match at 6. The championship match will follow.
The door is open for a new champion in the third annual NJIC girls volleyball tournament.
Elmwood Park captured the first two titles in 2016 and 2017. The Crusaders graduated all of their key contributors from those squads and fell in the first round of this year’s 16-team bracket.
Wood-Ridge was last season’s runner-up, pushing Elmwood Park in the final before bowing, 31-29, 25-22. Now as the No. 1 seed, the Blue Devils reached Monday’s semifinal round and squared off with No. 4 Park Ridge, which ascended into this week’s North Jersey Top 20 (see below) on the strength of 10 straight wins.
The other NJIC semifinal entrants both are enjoying resurgent seasons. No. 2 Cresskill (13-6 entering Monday) surpassed its 2017 win total one day before outlasting Garfield in the quarterfinals, 2-1.
Wallington (17-4) scored a three-set quarterfinal win over Waldwick, which represented the Panthers’ 16th victory of the season – and equaled their total from the past two years combined.
► Midway through her third varsity season, Wood-Ridge junior OH Madylin Marino surpassed 500 career kills in an Oct. 11 win at Hasbrouck Heights. Five days later, Blue Devils senior Ashley Gareffa eclipsed 600 career assists against Paterson Charter.
► Recent Athlete of the Week honoree Ashley Ziltz of Park Ridge recorded her 700th kill last Thursday versus Emerson in a 25-8, 25-15 Owls victory.
► Waldman picked up her 1,000th career assist when Dwight-Englewood defeated Lyndhurst on Sept. 14.
