Volleyball Dominates Garfield to Take Home NJSIAA Group 2 Title

Gian Gomez ‘25 had an intense look in his eyes from the moment the Saint Joseph Volleyball team took the court for warmups before the NJSIAA Group 2 championship match.

It was a look of someone focused, energized and looking to prove the rest of the volleyball world in New Jersey wrong for the second consecutive year.

Almost one year to the day when Scott Schmidt ‘23 entered Saint Joe’s lore with an ace to win the 2023 title, Gomez delivered the knockout punch with an almost unreturnable service point to lead the Falcons to their second straight state title, a 2-0 domination over Garfield.

“Last year I was the energy guy on the bench and this year, I became that guy on the court,” Gomez said. “I love how we were down at the beginning of the year, but turned it on in the states and never lost a set. We got together and made a great team, a state championship team.”

The Falcons controlled the match from start to finish, with the offense setting up Gomez (12 kills) and Dominic Nycz ‘26 (seven kills) throughout the championship sweep. Noah Stout ‘24 led the defensive effort with 12 digs, while Sam Contursi ‘25 and Sean Martinez ‘25 each had 10 assists.

During his postgame talk with the team, head coach Miguel Cabrita ‘91 already set the championship expectation for next year’s squad. With the Falcons graduating just five players, including Stout, Shlok Patel ‘24, Jason Nawrocki ‘24, Johan Vaidyan, and JP Farrelly ‘24, Saint Joe’s is primed for continued success in the future with Gomez, Contursi, Martinez and Nycz in the driver’s seat.

“The boys know what they’re signing up for,” Cabrita said. “They know it’s not an easy task because everybody walks into a gym to play us and is like ‘They’re a state champion’ and ‘If they beat Saint Joe’s there are bragging rights. Teams go all out on us. These guys just get tougher and tougher the more we put them through that pressure.”