Bogota volleyball player Lucy Villamar utilizes many athletic skills that she learned growing up. Court coverage, returning volleys and serving aces are old hat for the junior libero.
All she had to do was adapt them from one court to another.
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The North Jersey Female Athlete of the Week, presented by HSS, specialized in tennis as a youngster. Then, as do so many girls in her volleyball-crazed hometown, she migrated toward the nets in the gymnasium.
“The legacy is super big here at Bogota, so I tried out for the middle school team,” Villamar said. “Some of my friends were doing it, and I just kind of wanted to try something new, so I decided to go with volleyball.”
Lucy Villamar, Bogota volleyball
The nets are higher, the ball is larger, and the racquet is absent. Still, there are similarities that helped ease the transition.
“I do think tennis helped with my coordination and footwork for volleyball,” Villamar said. “I feel like it can be applicable in any sport, really.”
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Bogota is most appreciative when those skills are applied in the gym, in November. For a program that has 12 state championships to its credit, going three years without qualifying for a sectional final is uncharacteristic.
Villamar helped end that “drought” with her play in the NJSIAA tournament. The Bucs won three matches last week to reach the North Group 1 final, and the 5-foot-2 back-row specialist had at least 24 digs in every match (all 3-0 sweeps in a best-of-5 format).
“Her stats are excellent,” Bucs coach Brad DiRupo said, “but those do not measure the importance of her play as a key to our success this week, and really the entire season.”
“I feel like serve-receive, passing consistency – those can definitely make or break the game,” Villamar said. “The team that passes the best is usually the one that’s going to end up winning, and that really starts with a strong libero.”
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Besides keeping alive key points, she served four aces against both Whippany Park (Nov. 2) and Midland Park (Nov. 4). That set up a Nov. 6 semifinal against NJIC Colonial rival Secaucus, which Bogota swept in the regular season to claim the division title.
The Bucs upended the reigning Group 1 state champs, 25-15, 25-17, 25-10, with Villamar making 20 digs and serving 18 points (with 2 aces).
“The past two years, actually, we’d lost against them” in the sectional tournament, she pointed out. “There were many instances where we were had some long rallies, and I felt like the whole team was able to pull through and put it away.”
Bogota wound up bowing in the Nov. 11 sectional final at Verona, 3-2.
Villamar plays club volleyball year-round, so she will continue honing her craft with an eye on adding to the Bucs’ legacy next season.
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Her college plans are currently undecided, though she has surprisingly specific goals for eventually entering the workforce.
“I do want to study human resources management,” Villamar said. “Most people don’t want to go into straight HR, they just end up stuck with it. But my mom actually works in HR, so I want to get the degree she did, and then hopefully a similar job.”
Lucy Villamar
Sport: Volleyball
School: Bogota
Class: Junior Age: 16
Accomplishment: Villamar helped the Bucs reach their first sectional final in three years, totaling 80 digs, 44 service points and 10 aces in the first three rounds of the North Group 1 tournament. Bogota won every match via 3-0 sweep.
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Also nominated: Katherine Keating of Ridgewood for cross-country; and Lizzie Rubin of Ramsey and Adriana Canaris of Lyndhurst for soccer.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: North Jersey Female Athlete of the Week fuels run to sectional final
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
