Hightstown seniors key late-season girls volleyball run
Violet Tjoe and Arleen Toor were thrilled when Hightstown High School started a girls volleyball program in 2023.
Both were incoming freshmen who had just begun playing, Tjoe in seventh grade and Toor in eighth grade. The addition of volleyball gave them an opportunity to help get the Rams going, and now, along with Ryan Smith, they are the first seniors to play all four years in the program.
“Genuinely, this team has become my family,” Tjoe said. “I don’t know what I would do without these kids because, like we go through our ups and downs on and off the court, we do fight sometimes, but at the end of the day, we all come from the same place. We’re all going to stick together. And of course, we’re just going to be with each other until the very end when we graduate.”
Their final season has had its ups and downs, too. Hightstown began 3-6 as the Rams worked to replace six graduated seniors, then reeled off 10 wins in their final 11 games to finish the regular season 13-7, the best winning percentage in program history.
“It’s been really good because we did have a sort of rocky start in the beginning of our season, understanding that we had new players that didn’t get to play at the varsity level,” Toor said. “So them being able to adjust, make that adjustment and start helping us, start developing and helping us compete has been so great.”
The Hightstown seniors have played a big role in helping to bring along the team. They have been integral to its success. Toor, the setter, leads the Rams with 312 assists to go with 101 digs and 81 service points, including 50 aces.
“I think I’ve been really able to step into my role as a veteran,” Toor said. She has more than 700 career assists. “Just like helping those younger girls find where they need to be on the court, what they need to do, and just emphasize that volleyball is like a game of mistakes. You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to make them because that’s just how the game is. So stepping into that role as a leader alongside running the offense and setting my hitters, connecting with them has just been a big part of this year.”
Toor got her start in eighth grade after a visit to an uncle in India piqued her interest. She has continued to play club volleyball and developed her skills enough to continue her career at William Paterson University.
“When I first started, I didn’t really even think about college as a possibility,” Toor said. “But I’ve just like fallen in love with the game, and just been able to understand that, this is something I want to keep on doing.”
Tjoe, an outside hitter who has also been asked to play more defense this year, leads Hightstown in digs with 135 and has the second-most kills with 84, along with 106 service points, including 38 aces.
“Last year I wasn’t really that much involved in defense,” she said. “But this year I’m definitely a person who is really holding down the defense and everything. I definitely had a lot more service points and aces than I did in the previous years. And I really just like hold down the defense, our team chemistry and our team bond.”
Tjoe got her start as a libero when she took up the game in seventh grade. She tried out as a libero as a freshman before the Rams decided to use her all-around skills as an outside hitter. She is happy to show her versatility after getting the chance to play on Hightstown’s first high school volleyball team.
“I was going around to people asking if they would ever want to join a volleyball team, and I really wanted to bring that into HHS,” she said. “But fortunately for me, they brought it my freshman year.”
Ryan Smith, a middle blocker, has 22 kills, six blocks and 14 digs. The senior trio has done all it can to lift the team.
“Violet and Ryan are some of my best friends,” Toor said. “I just like being so connected with the senior class and just having the three of us help those younger girls has just been so great. I just want to embrace every moment I have with them and they’re all connected to the younger players, even our JV program and just being able to work with them and being role models for those younger girls has just been so great.”
Hightstown has been led in kills by junior Jessica Jean-Mary. Alivia Brown has stepped into the libero role after her sister graduated and has 102 digs. Mya Deboles leads the team with 17 blocks. The Rams have shown how effective they can be together after some time adjusting to a new serve-receive system.
“It was a really rough start,” Tjoe said. “Most of our players are still young, but we also figured stuff out. Like we’ve been practicing a lot. We were practicing a four-person serve receive, and that’s been one of our crucial points of where we usually struggle. We struggled a lot with three-person, but since we added another person, we have more court coverage and we get to the ball way more.”
The improvements have been noticeable. During the Rams’ seven-game winning streak, they defeated a Notre Dame team they had lost to earlier in the year, 2-0. They also took the first set off defending state champion Princeton during their only loss in the final 11 games. That sort of play gave them confidence going into the Burlington County Scholastic League tournament as the fifth seed.
“Last year, we did make it to the semis,” Toor said. “And this year, we really want to turn it around and keep pushing forward and show everyone that we can compete and we can win. I think our road to the finals is a little bit tougher than it was last year, so just understanding that and having that hard work, grit and just pushing through to power through towards the end.”
There’s still more volleyball ahead for Toor, not just in college. She coaches in the Core club where she got her start in eighth grade. She has come full circle, coaching a team of 14-year-olds this year.
“I like coaching younger kids,” she said. “You can see the moment they start developing their love for the game. And I’m such a fan of the mental aspect of the game and that volleyball is so much more than what you do on the court. So being able to show girls and young kids that volleyball is so much more than what you see on the court and what you show everybody and just being able to help those girls find that out and alongside help them volleyball wise is just so fun. There’s just something I love about it.”
Tjoe also is in no hurry to give up the game. She learned the game playing for multiple clubs and is looking at continuing for two years in community college in hopes of playing at the club level at Rutgers. She has enjoyed being part of one of the best-supported sports at Hightstown, where fans have come out to support the school’s newest sport.
“It’s a very fun sport, and I think more people should come and watch it,” Tjoe said. “Everyone that came in the gym and watched us play says it’s very exciting. It gets them on their feet and just very rowdy.”
There’s plenty to be excited about in the future, with all but three players expected back from this year’s team. The Rams expect to add Toor’s younger sister and another standout middle school player, and they can draw more interested players from Kreps Middle School.
After a JV season to get the program launched, this year’s senior group has enjoyed helping set a standard for Hightstown over the last three years. Their late-season run makes them a dangerous team for the 2026 postseason.
“We started off as a JV team and eventually earning a division title as a senior would definitely make my whole entire high school career,” Tjoe said. “We’ve been working hard for this. We went through ups and downs, especially during our sophomore year when we went through a few heartbreaking losses. But I feel like this year really is a year to go big or go home with this special group.”
