An accomplished group of Bridgewater-Raritan High School boys’ volleyball seniors was honored Thursday evening.
Prior to its thrilling home matchup against 15th-ranked Hunterdon Central Regional High School, which held off the 16th-ranked Panthers in a straight-set thriller, 2-0 (29-27, 27-25), Bridgewater-Raritan High School Class of 2026 seniors Dev Ghandi, Nathan Lobo, Anthony Chaang, Fisayo Ogunsulire, Daksh Rajput, Jason Stimpfle, Andrew Zagula, and Musa Ahmad were honored in a pregame ceremony on Senior Night by Hall-Of-Fame head coach Corey Romanak and his staff with the players’ families and supporters all in attendance.
Despite trailing by as much as six points in both sets, including 24-20 in the opening set, Bridgewater-Raritan (11-8, 5-3) did not fold and successfully rallied to force overtime each time. However, Hunterdon Central (12-6, 4-4) escaped in the end to salvage a split of their regular-season rivalry series, which saw the Panthers cruise to a 2-0 (25-14, 25-15) victory in Flemington back on April 21.
Most importantly, every one of Bridgewater-Raritan’s graduating members of the Class of 2026 contributed on Senior Night, and Ogunsulire (seven kills, four digs), Rajput (three kills, one dig), Ahmad (one kill, one assist, two digs), Lobo (one kill), Zagula (seven assists, four digs), and Chaang (two digs) each found their way into the scorebook.
“They are leaving the program in very good hands for our younger guys,” praised Coach Romanak afterwards of his graduating seniors and his team’s valiant comeback bid. “Our seniors have stepped up when somebody gets hurt and coming into these situations, and they know their roles. Having Jason serving, Anthony playing the full match in the back row, Dev coming in with a huge serve at the end, and even Nathan getting the kill just makes me happy when they produce. It’s not like I was making substitutions just because it was Senior Night, because I really had confidence that they were going to make that play. That is a testament to what they’ve put into our practices every single day. This was a huge game for seedings and for states, and if I didn’t have confidence in them, I would not have put them in.”
“They all played brilliantly tonight.”
Juniors Gerard Kohutis (five kills, one dig), Wesley Lin (five kills, one assist, seven digs), Daksh Bansal (four kills, two digs), Ian Tai (two aces, 13 assists, four digs), Sam Galindo (one ace, one dig), and Ethan Romanak (two assists, 14 digs) rounded out the scoring in defeat for the Panthers.
Bridgewater-Raritan will now tune up for the home stretch starting with a big invitational at seventh-ranked Southern Regional High School (15-5) at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 9, in Manahawkin. Southern is New Jersey’s reigning Group 3 state champion after being moved down from Group 4 by the NJSIAA starting in 2025.
One year earlier in 2024, then-three-time reigning Group 4 state champion Southern was dethroned by current-two-time reigning Group 4 champion and fifth-ranked Old Bridge High School (15-4) in the South, Group 4 finals.
Bridgewater-Raritan’s Class of 2026 seniors launched their high-school careers with back-to-back Skyland Cup and North, Group 4 state sectional titles in 2023 and 2024 as freshmen and sophomores, respectively, when the Panthers finished with a combined record of 43-12 in this stretch of time. However, Southern and Old Bridge defeated the Panthers in these respective years’ state championships.
Heading into last spring, in addition to Southern moving down to Group 3, the Panthers essentially replaced Southern in its section after getting moved from North, Group 4 to South, Group 4.
This is arguably New Jersey’s toughest playoff section in any sport this school year, as top-ranked Monroe Township High School (21-1), fifth-ranked Old Bridge High School (15-4), ninth-ranked Hillsborough High School (17-4), 13th-ranked Kingsway Regional High School (15-3), and 14th-ranked J.P. Stevens High School (16-4) are all also in this section with 15th-ranked Hunterdon Central (12-6) and 16th-ranked Bridgewater-Raritan (11-8).
Bridgewater-Raritan was defeated last season at Kingsway, 2-0 (25-20, 25-12), in the South, Group 4 quarterfinals to end its 2025 season with an 18-11 record.
Until this year’s state tournament, which begins Monday, May 27, both Bridgewater-Raritan and Hunterdon Central will now also await their seeding in the 2026 Skyland Cup.
Reigning Skyland Cup champion Hillsborough (17-4, 7-1), which swept its regular-season series with the Panthers via a pair of close straight-set victories, will be the presumptive No. 1 seed. However, the order between Hunterdon Central (12-6, 4-4) and Bridgewater-Raritan (11-8, 5-3) at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots may now be up for debate after Thursday evening, as the surging Red Devils have now won their last four consecutive Skyland Conference Delaware Division matchups after Thursday evening: one against each of their four division rivals.
Regardless, if all higher-seeded teams win in the Skyland Cup and both Hunterdon Central and Bridgewater-Raritan are the likely No. 2 and No. 3 seeds [in either order], the Red Devils and Panthers’ paths would collide for a third time this spring in the Skyland Cup semifinals Tuesday, May 19. Both teams met in the semifinal round last season in Flemington, where then-third-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan upset the then-second-seeded Red Devils, 2-1 (18-25, 25-16, 25-23), before being denied its bid at a Skyland Cup three-peat in a straight-set championship match loss at Hillsborough.
The 2026 Skyland Cup finals are scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Thursday, May 21, on the court of the team seeded highest amongst the two finalists.
Depending on how the seeding pans out for the NJSIAA South New Jersey, Group 4, Boys’ Volleyball Tournament after the NJSIAA’s cutoff date of Saturday, May 16, Bridgewater-Raritan and Hunterdon Central could also draw another matchup in the state sectional playoffs with the highest stakes.