For a few weeks, the Barnegat girls volleyball team was missing its most experienced and most effective player, senior Gilana Fitzmaurice, and the inexperience amid the rest of the Bengals’ lineup showed. Once she returned to the court, the Bengals had won five of their previous seven matches heading into the state tournament.

“We go to the Moorestown tournament and our most dominant middle gets hurt,” said coach Karla Jennings after her squad ousted Vernon, 25-12, 25-18, in the preliminary…