As the start of the 2012 New Jersey high school boys volleyball season approached, it wouldn’t have taken a Nostradamus to predict that the Southern Regional High School boys volleyball team would be in the thick of the battle for the state championship this spring.

After all, the team has been a perennial contender almost since its inception, racking up a 313-75 record in its dozen years under head coach Eric Maxwell, qualifying for the state tourney in just the second year of its existence.