Coaches are a funny lot. A team can lose a match and coaches can still be happy about what they saw.
Shelter Island's varsity game against the Babylon Panthers on Saturday, Sept. 14 ended with the same final result as the Pierson game earlier in the week. The Whalers had handed the Islanders a 3-0 loss on Monday, Sept. 9.
Despite some fairly respectable scores, it was apparent our serve-receive was in dire need of shoring up against tough serves. We were vulnerable to long runs, which quickly change the momentum of the game.
The team has accepted the challenge, and we're spending extra time with "Sasha," the serving machine. Working on serve-receive can be a grind, but is so necessary. The hard work the team put in during practice last week is paying benefits. The team saw improvement in that essential skill against Babylon.
The trip to Babylon presented several challenges. First, the trip itself is long: about two hours each way. Secondly, the varsity team was shorthanded. We knew we were down one player because of a prior commitment -- an unfortunate obstacle this season with so many Saturday matches on our schedule. Two other players woke up sick or had been up most of the night with health concerns.
The team of nine became a team of six. Six is the minimum number needed to field a team, but fitting those players to the roles on the court needed some tweaking.
Sophomore Juliana Medina plays on the JV squad, but had spent a short amount of time on the varsity court the previous night. She was asked to fill in at middle hitter. The JV and varsity teams run the same systems and the older athletes were very supportive. She blended in seamlessly.
The short-handed team showed improvements in several areas. Johanna Kaasik is one of the team's top kill getters with her smart and well-placed tips, catching the opponent's defense by surprise. Elliot Schack is one of our main setters and is becoming much more fluid on the court. El and Jo often make great setter-to-setter connections on broken plays.
Dariana Durán, who is always aware of team positioning, quickly picked up some of Babylon's tips, something we haven't seen much of this year. At middle hitter Juliana Medina made heads-up plays at the net, hitting overpasses and challenging the Panthers with her blocks. She had big shoes to fill at that position since Lauren Gibbs had contributed five kills against the Whalers earlier in the week.
Mandy Marcello got to rip a couple of hits, leading to whoops of joy from the bench and teammates. She also was able to successfully make adjustments to her serve during the game to become more effective. Mae Brigham was a tall blocking presence at the net, and also has nice hands, stepping in on a tough pass to set the ball for a crowd-pleasing Marcello kill.
Quinn Sobejana is always in the hot seat on serve-receive, and calmly adjusted to tough serves, focusing on steadying her passing platform. With both Lili Kuhr and Paulina Nava out, making her the sole sub who focuses on defense, she simply shook off any tough plays and kept on going. She also made a great back row hit.
Overall, there were far more rallies and some excellent scrambling saves, showing the continuing maturation of this young team.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Like the varsity team, the JV is improving individual skills while continuing to build team unity. At Pierson, the Whalers got off to a fast start, but our team dug in.
The trio of Lexi Bartilucci, Kylie Kuhr and Sadie Green-Clark put together a classic pass, set, kill point to stop their opponents' momentum.
As the match went on, Green-Clark also served seven in a row, boosting the Islanders score. Lily Brigham, who is trying the role of libero for the first season, showed why her coach gave her the gray jersey -- her increasing confidence and footwork to get the ball is paying dividends. In the end, despite largely matching Pierson's efforts, the Whalers prevailed over the Islanders.
In the Sept. 14 match against Babylon, Coach Kristin Sweeney adjusted her crew of eight to play without Medina. Luckily, Natalie Mamisashvili has now accrued enough practices to play in matches. Mamisashvili is athletic, and the coaches are certain that the leadership she displays in basketball will soon translate into points on the volleyball court.
Overall, the serves against the Panthers weren't as consistent as they could have been, which made it tough to score more than one point in a row. However, Lily Potter had a good serving day, and she also got a kill as she roamed the net at middle hitter.
Makayla Cronin has been focusing on her passing, and has very good form. In a nice sequence she calmly received serve, getting the ball to a teammate, then sent the third ball over to a tough spot on the Babylon side.
Team manager Rosie Hanley was keeping stats on the bench. While the classic pass, set, hit rhythm is still in development for the JV team, her work showed that Lexi Bartilucci notched two kills, Green-Clark got one and Maeve Springer scored another.
Like other teammates, Springer is showing increasing volleyball IQ. She went up on block with Green-Clark, then quickly got into position for a hit. This transition work is very important, and as team play matures being in the right place at the right time and being ready will lead to more scoring opportunities.
LOOKING AHEAD
There's a trifecta of away matches coming up quickly: Ross School on the 19th, Greenport/Southold on the 20th and Southampton on the 21st. The teams are excited to bring their evolving playing to our local rivals.