Whether Bridgewater-Raritan and Hillsborough’s boys’ volleyball teams meet for a fourth time this scholastic spring season will be determined in the coming weeks.
At least for now, Bridgewater-Raritan earned one emphatic distinction over the Raiders with round three between these two heavyweights now in the books.
King of the Skyland Conference.
After falling twice in close straight sets against the Raiders in the regular season, second-seeded and 19th-ranked Bridgewater-Raritan (17-10) found itself on the doorstep of elimination in the Skyland Cup finals against top-seeded and eighth-ranked Hillsborough (22-5). Trailing by three points late in game four of their best-of-five set, the Panthers surged ahead late before winning in overtime to force the decisive 15-point game five.
While the Raiders launched the final set with three of the first four points, Bridgewater-Raritan dealt a pair of aces each by juniors Ian Tai (two aces, 23 assists, 11 digs) and Brayden Sullivan (two aces), which gave the visitors a five-point lead they never relinquished.
Most importantly, one year after being dethroned in the Skyland Cup finals on this same court, the Panthers finally made amends.
Hillsborough clawed back to within one point of forcing overtime in its bid to defend its Skyland Cup title, but junior Daksh Bansal (17 kills, four digs) delivered the walk-off kill for Bridgewater-Raritan to seal an epic 3-2 (25-20, 22-25, 21-25, 28-26, 15-13) victory for the Panthers in an instant classic Thursday, May 21, at Ian Progin Court in Hillsborough.
“The second the ball was served, I knew that the only thing that was in between us the net,” revealed of that moment by Bansal, whose squad fell 2-0 (25-22, 22-25) on this same court April 16 and 2-0 (25-22, 25-21) on May 5 in Bridgewater before ultimately snapping a six-match losing streak to Hillsborough going back to the 2024 regular season. “I went up, and I honestly wasn’t thinking, but we trained for this exact moment thousands of times in practice and over the past four years of my volleyball career.”
“My mind was blank, but I hit the ball, and it was a great moment.”
That milestone officially clinched Bridgewater-Raritan’s third Skyland Cup championship trophy in the last four years, and as a result, the Panthers also avenged their 2-0 (26-24, 25-18) loss to the Raiders in last year’s Skyland Cup finals via Thursday evening’s upset victory.
“Every single bit of motivation came from that loss,” revealed afterward by Bridgewater-Raritan senior Fisayo Ogunsulire (16 kills, three blocks, one assist, 10 digs), whose team also snapped its streak of 12 consecutive game losses in its aforementioned six matches against Hillsborough after it triumphed in game one of Thursday evening’s Skyland Cup finals. “We knew that we were going to meet them again and that we were going to have to put everything out to beat them. We’ve lost to them five times in the last two years, so we knew we had to elevate ourselves to beat them today. Daksh Bansal has gotten better this whole season, [senior setter] Andrew Zagula has come back from an injury, and Ian Tai has gone from the bench to starting and carrying our whole team to going back into the 6-2 and helping us win this game.”
“I’m just proud of how everyone was motivated through that loss and brought us to this win here.”
Volleyball enthusiasts from around the Garden State would certainly welcome a fourth matchup between Bridgewater-Raritan and Hillsborough, but it might be a tall task for both of these teams’ paths to collide again.
That is because two-time reigning Group 4 state champion and fourth-ranked Old Bridge along with New Jersey’s top-ranked team in Monroe are the favorites by seeding out of the Greater Middlesex Conference to meet in the South, Group 4 state sectional finals.
Even chalking up a potential matchup between Monroe and Old Bridge is far from guaranteed.
Bridgewater-Raritan and Hillsborough are the No. 5 and No. 3 seeds, respectively, in the NJSIAA South New Jersey, Group 4, Boys’ Volleyball Tournament, which by itself is no surprise. However, not only do all 16 teams in this historically stacked field have at least an even (.500) record. Of New Jersey’s top 20 boys’ volleyball squads, a whopping seven of them, including top-ranked Monroe (No. 1 seed), fourth-ranked Old Bridge (No. 2 seed), eighth-ranked Hillsborough (No. 3 seed), and 19th-ranked Bridgewater-Raritan (No. 5 seed).
The top six teams by seed in the South, Group 4 playoffs, including unranked Egg Harbor Township (22-3), each have more Power Points than the top-seeded team in the North, Group 4 playoffs: Union (17-8), which is New Jersey’s 18th-ranked team overall.
The South, Group 4 and North, Group 4 state sectional champions will advance to the Group 4 state title match, which will be contested on Wednesday, June 10, at South Brunswick High School in Monmouth Junction to cap off what is primed to be an exciting 2026 postseason.
In addition to 10th-ranked Hunterdon Central (No. 4 seed), which has already split its regular-season Skyland Conference Delaware Division series with both the Panthers and Raiders, 14th-ranked Kingsway (No. 10 seed) and 15th-ranked J.P. Stevens (No. 9 seed) not only also round out the South, Group 4 teams meeting the aforementioned criteria.
As Kingsway and J.P. Stevens are seeded outside of the top eight in South, Group 4, they would have to go on the road to launch the state tournament and pull off an “upset” to keep their successful seasons alive.
In other words, that is just simply life as a South, Group 4 team, but both Bridgewater-Raritan and Hillsborough knew what they signed up for from the start.
“Every year, we talk about the Skyland Conference, because we have three teams ranked in the top 20, which is crazy to say,” shared afterward by Hillsborough head coach Jack Casey. “You’re playing the best teams in the state twice or three times a year – hopefully four times a year. It’s not easy teams you are playing against, so you’re going to walk off the court with things to work on and things to better yourself on every day.”
“It’s good to win or lose here today, because you can take lessons away from it.”
Bridgewater-Raritan particularly rolled to a 2-0 (25-14, 25-15) at Hunterdon Central on April 21 before falling in a tight 2-0 (29-27, 27-25) contest at home to the Red Devils on May 5. Fittingly, both teams met for a third time in the semifinal round of the Skyland Cup, with the Panthers sweeping the third-seeded Red Devils, 3-0 (25-14, 28-26, 25-20), on Tuesday evening in Bridgewater.
This set the stage for Thursday evening’s epic Skyland Cup finale against the Raiders, who also entered the championship match fresh off of a pair of 3-0 sweeps in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.
Fifth-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan (17-10) will now have its eyes set on its state tournament opener against 12th-seeded Edison (18-8) at 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 27, at Vaughn Stapleton Gymnasium in Bridgewater. Third-seeded Hillsborough (22-5) will launch its bid to win the Group 4 state championship against 14th-seeded East Brunswick (12-12) on this same date and time at Ian Progin Court in Hillsborough.
Should both Bridgewater-Raritan and Hunterdon Central particularly win their state tournament openers, including the Red Devils’ Tuesday, May 27 matchup against 13th-seeded Cherry Hill East (19-3), they would be guaranteed to square off for a fourth time in the South, Group 4 quarterfinals Friday, May 29. That battle would take place in Flemington, as Hunterdon Central would have home-court advantage as the higher seeded team over the Panthers.
A lot more than this must happen for Bridgewater-Raritan and Hillsborough to similarly earn the ultimate prize of a fourth and final showdown in 2026 in a win-or-go-home setting.
Because the Panthers and Raiders are on opposite sides of the South, Group 4 bracket, they must win each of their first three state tournament matches in order to play each other again. That would be in the South, Group 4 state sectional championship match with a trip to the state finals on the line – and possibly more.
Regardless, if the Skyland Cup finals marks the last time the Panthers and Raiders meet this spring, they could not have ended their rivalry series in 2026 on a higher note.
“The first time we played them, I wasn’t here, but we lost both sets by a really small margin,” shared of the April 16 meeting by Bansal, who did not make an appearance in that match and is now amongst a trio of Panthers’ players near or above the 200-kill milestone for the year. “When we played them a second time, I didn’t play my best game. It was just one roadblock in the way, and we just got better. We played them a third time here, but we knew that we had a tough schedule packed with top teams in Hillsborough, Monroe, and Old Bridge who we can play again in states.”
“We’re very excited, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.”
On Thursday evening, both teams split the match’s first 18 points, but a service error by Hillsborough into a dish by senior starting setter Andrew Zagula (39 assists, eight digs) to Bansal began a 13-7 scoring run for the Panthers. Tai, who stepped into the starting setter role for Bridgewater-Raritan due to an injury suffered by Zagula in the Panthers’ season opener, closed out this key stretch for Bridgewater-Raritan.
The Panthers led 22-16 in game one after Tai delivered a pass to junior Wesley Lin (18 kills, one block, one ace, one assist, 20 digs). Zagula then closed out this game one victory on the court, which highlighted what has been a dangerous one-two punch at the setter position for Bridgewater-Raritan.
Zagula went on to produce assists on kills by Lin and Ogunsulire, while junior libero Ethan Romanak (three assists, 30 digs) tallied the game-sealing assist to Dansal.
“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs throughout the season, but here is where we really stood steady,” said Zagula, who has an average of 6.6 assists per set in a match factoring his missed time to go with Tai’s 7.75 assists per set in a match. “We’ve been on the constant road to improvement in our past two games leading up to this, and our team has experienced a lot of changes with players on the court. A lot of people have been subbed on and off, but it’s pretty crazy that we have now beaten one of the top teams in the state.”
“We played really well, and I think this was the ultimate culmination of everything that we have been doing this season.”
Of course, volleyball matches are not just won in game one.
Bridgewater-Raritan took an early two-point lead in game two on a block by senior Musa Ahmad (five kills, three blocks, seven digs). Inevitably, Hillsborough’s one-two punch at setter in sophomore Simon Bulawski (four blocks, three digs) and senior Manav Jain (19 assists, eight digs) commanded a comeback by the home team, which saw senior Gavin Wacaster (16 kills, eight digs) dominate with seven kills just in this set.
With game two tied at 10-10, senior Adam Vandermeer (one kill, four blocks, one dig) put the Raiders in front, and they never trailed again. Senior Marcus Bulawski (three kills, one ace): Simon’s older brother, then dealt an ace to give Hillsborough a 16-12 lead, but trailing by two points, Bridgewater-Raritan scored on play set up via a one-handed running dig by Zagula. His resulting hockey assist was accomplished on a pass from junior Sam Galindo (two kills, one ace, one assist, 13 digs), who delivered the ensuing ball to Lin.
This brought the Panthers to within one point before they ultimately tied game two, 22-22, on an assist from Tai to Bansal. Back-to-back points by Simon Bulawski and sophomore Adam Moffitt (one ace, seven blocks) set up game point for Hillsborough.
They officially evened the Skyland Cup finals, 1-1, after an error by Bridgewater-Raritan.
Hillsborough never trailed in game three and opened up a comfortable 12-6 lead on a pass by Jain to sophomore Alex Susan (19 kills, two aces, three assists, nine digs). After a Jain-to-Wacaster connection, an outcall on Bridgewater-Raritan gave Hillsborough its largest lead of any set of the night, 16-9, in game three. Although the Panthers were on the wrong side of a 24-17 game point, Tai was on the court for points by Ahmad, Ogunsulire (twice), and an out call against Hillsborough as part of a late Bridgewater-Raritan rally.
With his team’s lead cut to 24-21, Marcus Bulaowski’s block ended game three, and this put Hillsborough in the driver’s seat via a 2-1 lead in Thursday evening’s best-of-five match.
On the eighth point of game four, everyone in attendance collectively held their breath when Susan briefly went down due to an injury he appeared to suffer when colliding with the soft backdrop behind his team’s service line on his way back for a dig. He ended up returning the very next play to a well-deserved round of applause by everyone in attendance.
That was especially great given his critical points in a memorable finish to game four.
With his team facing elimination, junior Gerard Kohutis (nine kills, one block, one assist) denied a return attempt up front to give Bridgewater-Raritan an early two-point lead in game four. Both teams ultimately worked to a 14-14 deadlock, but to cap off a six-point run, Bansal registered back-to-back kills before senior Daksh Rajput (three kills, three blocks, four digs) then scored to give the Panthers a 17-14 lead. Marcus and Simon Bulawski then answered with four straight points for Hillsborough to put the Raiders in front, 18-17, and a service error put the home team three points away from defending their Skyland Cup title.
Bridgewater-Raritan had other ideas.
Four straight points by the Panthers, including back-to-back points by Ogunsulire and Lin, gave Bridgewater-Raritan a timely 23-22 lead in game four. While another kill by Lin set up a miraculous game point for the Panthers, Susan’s follow-up block for Hillsborough instead forced overtime with the Skyland Cup crown on the line.
A pass from Zagula to Ahmad began the overtime seesaw, as Jain followed suit to Wacaster to make it 25-25. An error charged to Bridgewater-Raritan set Hillsborough’s ensuing match point up, but Dansal responded with a clutch kill to knot the score, 26-26.
The Panthers stole game four in overtime, 28-26, after the Raiders were charged with an error, as a suspenseful deliberation by the officials on the final point of game four was ruled in favor of Bridgewater-Raritan.
“From the beginning, our graduates have been our biggest role models,” Bansal went on to say of the Panthers’ past stars, notably their two leading scorers from last season in Class of 2025 alumni Harry Fromberg (315 kills) and Cam Williams (237 kills). “We learned a lot from them, but I knew my responsibility and that I had some big shoes to fill in.”
“I took it to heart, and I have played my best.”
After his career-high 17 kills, Bansal now is tied with Ogunsulire for second on the team with 183 kills behind Lin, who leads Bridgewater-Raritan with 264 kills and trails only Ethan Romanak with 200 digs on the team for the season.
Bansal’s last kill, however, was his biggest to date as part of a thrilling game-five finale.
Moffitt opened the decisive set with back-to-back points for Hillsborough, which took an early 3-1 lead with its home fans behind it. A kill by Ogunsulire, followed by an error by the Raiders, then tied the game. After Susan gave Hillsborough the lead, Bansal’s ensuing kill made it a 4-4 decisive set.
The Panthers never trailed again.
In a matchup pinning two evenly matched state championship contenders in a winner-take-all game five, a new group of heroes on both sides attempted to etch their names into Skyland Cup lore.
Tai’s back-to-back aces gave the Panthers a 6-4 cushion, but after a point by Kohutis, Marcus Bulowski scored for Hillsborough, and junior libero William Herterich (one assist, 17 digs) delivered an ace to make it a 7-7 game. With Sullivan grabbing the ball behind the service line for Bridgewater-Raritan, a pair of aces by the Panthers’ junior libero off of the bench capped a burst of four straight points by the visitors.
Ogunsulire’s ensuing kill extended Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 12-7, and the Panthers suddenly found themselves three points away from stealing the Skyland Cup title from Hillsborough.
“Having Brayden come in, having Ian serve, and getting those points was such a momentum change,” reflected Corey Romanak, Ethan’s dad and the Panthers’ Hall-Of-Fame head coach. “That’s the spark you sometimes need that is going to separate teams like that, especially with Brayden coming off of the bench cold.”
“Without Brayden serving, I don’t think we win this match, because he brought that catalyst of energy when we needed him the most.”
Ethan Romanak already has extended Bridgewater-Raritan’s school record in digs he set last season (361 digs), and his career-high 30 digs on Thursday evening put him at 399 digs and counting this spring alone.
With his team leading 13-8 late in game five, the Panthers needed every last point of their big cushion.
Wacaster broke Bridgewater-Raritan’s scoring run, and Susan produced back-to-back kills to draw Hillsborough to within 13-11. Zagula then found Lin to set up a match point for the Panthers, but Susan answered with a kill, and the potential game-winning spike by Ogunsulire sailed out of bounds.
After the ensuing timeout with Bridgewater-Raritan clinging to a 14-13 lead, Dansal sent everyone home – not before his entire bench rushed onto the Raiders’ court in jubilation.
Dansal’s final kill denied the Raiders a chance to defend its Skyland Cup title in overtime, and Bridgewater-Raritan ended what hopes to be its first of multiple championship runs over the final three weeks of the boys’ volleyball season.
“To win three out of four [Skyland Cups] is a pretty fun feeling,” said afterwards by Corey Romanak, who has now guided the Panthers to a whopping six straight Skyland Cup championship appearances with three titles (2023, 2024, 2026) in this span. “As excited as I am, it’s more about our kids experiencing this. We play one of the toughest schedules in the state, but even though we lost twice to Hillsborough, I felt we were in both of those matches. I don’t see us coming in here and beating them as an upset, but as two powerhouse teams battling back and forth. I give a lot of credit to Hillsborough since they could have won that match.”
“We just pulled away, transitioned more, and made more points than they did.”
To round off the scoring in defeat for Hillsborough, sophomore Thomas Marticek (five digs), junior Chase Shepler (one assist, four digs), and junior Riley Keenan (one dig) combined for 10 of their team’s 59 digs.
“I’m happy they kept their heads up,” praised Casey of his Hillsborough team in defeat.
“I obviously don’t like the outcome and wish we made some more adjustments, but the fact that they believed until the end is all I can ask for.”
Bridgewater-Raritan (17-10), which tallied an impressive 107 digs and also finished with a 70-36 kill advantage over Hillsborough, also eliminated the Raiders in the Somerset County Tournament on the girls’ side this past fall en route to being crowned county champions. But after losing its first three matches of the fall 2025 girls’ volleyball season to the Panthers, then-seventh-seeded Hillsborough upset then-second-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan in the second round of the girls’ volleyball state tournament, 3-2 (25-18, 25-20, 21-25, 20-25, 15-5).
This halted the Panthers’ 20-match winning streak to end the fall season.
As previously mentioned, a fourth meeting between Bridgewater-Raritan and Hillsborough on the boys’ side is contingent upon victories in both teams’ first three tournament games.
That being said, if their most recent matches in both the fall and the spring are any indicator, fasten your seatbelts for an exciting boys’ volleyball postseason in the Garden State.
Both teams will now shift their attention to their South, Group 4 gauntlet, as fifth-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan (17-10) will open the boys’ state tournament against 12th-seeded Edison (18-8) at 4 p.m. Wednesday, May 27, at Vaughn Stapleton Gymnasium in Bridgewater. The winner of this matchup will advance to the state sectional quarterfinals against either 13th-seeded Cherry Hill East (19-3) or fourth-seeded Hunterdon Central (17-8).
Third-seeded Hillsborough (22-5) will serve as host to 14th-seeded East Brunswick (12-12) at 4 p.m. Wednesday, May 27, at Ian Progin Court in Hillsborough. The winner of this matchup will advance to the state sectional quarterfinals against either 11th-seeded Eastern Regional (17-5) or sixth-seeded Egg Harbor Township (22-3).
Should Bridgewater-Raritan and Hillsborough both win their first two state tournament matchups, if the top two seeds both also follow suit in the first two rounds, they would draw state sectional semifinals showdowns at top-seeded Monroe and second-seeded Old Bridge, respectively, on Tuesday, June 2.
The South, Group 4 finals are scheduled for Friday, June 5, on the court of the higher-seeded team amongst the surviving two squads.
At this rate, it is anyone’s guess as to which two teams these will be.