So everyone, after a great stint as the co-volleyball writer with Dan, I am leaving The Journal News to take another job. Tuesday will be my last day after two years here at TJN.
It’s been a pleasure writing about volleyball and all players in the Lo-Hud Valley the last few weeks and I wish everyone luck the rest of the year!! And it’s been a great ride at TJN, thanks to all the players, coaches, parents, etc who have made it so enjoyable to write about high school sports in our area.

Seems like it was a busy day of tournaments today!
In the Clarkstown South tournament, Hen Hud defeated John Jay in the final 25-19 and 25-18…Ossining defeated Westlake to win the White Plains tournament…Cornwall won the Carmel tournament with Carmel and Panas reaching the semifinals..
In a regular matches today, Byram Hills beat Pleasantville in three with 14 kills for Kelly Scanlon. It seems whenever I look at a Bobcats’ score, Scanlon has double-digit kills… she is having quite a year. And Blind Brook beat North Salem in four with 13 kills for Brooke Scelfo.

It’s my first night in the office since last Thursday, and I’m getting my first look at next week’s schedule. I was wrong when I said I’ll be covering three matches next week. I’m covering four. Now that is more like it.

It’s hard to continually update a blog if you don’t get out to any matches, so covering four next week will be nice. They are:

Clarkstown North at Clarkstown South on Tuesday
Byram Hills at Croton-Harmon on Wednesday
Suffern at Clarkstown North on Thursday
North Rockland at Suffern on Friday

Byram at Croton-Harmon is my first Westchester match of the year. The other three are interesting Rockland AA matches that I’m looking forward to.

So the first match that jumped out at me tonight was Hen Hud at Ardsley… two great teams from A and B matching up. The Sailors won in three, 25-20, 25-15, 25-10… Nicole Tamburri had 31 assists, Kami Nethersole had nine kills and 24 digs and Jackie Tamburri had 25 digs – sounds like some good defense by the Sailors. For Ardsley, Maggie Goldberg and Ivana Monserrate each had eight kills with 15 assists for Julia Rose Schmid.
Fox Lane won over Brewster, 25-8, 25-13, 25-19 with 24 digs for Allison Terlizzi, 30 assists for Rebecca Rubenstein and 11 kills for Nora Rugova. Everyone mark Oct. 9 on your calendar as that’s the day Fox Lane and Hen Hud meet at Hen Hud… a preview of the Class A final this year? Possibly!!
Westlake handed Croton its first loss of the year tonight… Beacon beat Ossining in four but Brittany Garrett had 18 kills.. John Jay beat Yorktown 3-0 with 15 digs, 12 assists and seven kills for Emily Sanders.. Valhalla beat Hastings in five with 18 kills for Christina Connelly…Carmel beat Clarkstown North in five with 36 assists for Danielle Basciano…Haldane beat Dobbs Ferry in three with 12 kills for Katie McConville.

Sorry, everybody, but as you may have noticed I’ve been out of action for about a week.  I haven’t been well, but I hope that by tomorrow I’ll be back in top shape (or roughly the shape I was originally).

I’ll definitely be well enough to get out to the matches I’m scheduled to cover in the latter portion of next week: Byram Hills at Croton-Harmon on Wednesday, then Suffern at Clarkstown North on Thursday, and North Rockland at Suffern on Friday.  See you there.

Okay the title of this post is silly but I thought it was cute! Anyway, it of course refers to Hen Hud.
Defending Class AA champion North Rockland visited the defending Class A champion Sailors today and wow what a match for Hen Hud. The Sailors were on their game from the first point to the last… and you name it and it was working for them today. Hitting, passing, blocking, digging, setting and last but certainly not least, serving.
It as a 25-17, 25-9, 25-7 win for Hen Hud… and their serving really took over in the second and third games especially. In the second game, it was freshman libero Jackie Tamburri whose serve took over, mixing up spots and hard and soft hits as Hen Hud won 12 straight points.
In the third game it was Kami Nethersole whose serving gave Hen Hud a 10-1 lead from 2-1 when she took the ball.
The team did a great job getting the ball to setter Nicole Tamburri who did her usual, dishing out 37 assists. Thirteen of those set up kills for Ragin Jackson who was in a rhythm on offense and dominated at the net, also scoring four blocks. Courtney Desmond added five blocks and eight kills for Hen Hud.
Hen Hud coach Diane Swertfager especially praised freshman Tamburri’s serving. Jackie Tamburri also had 26 digs and Nethersole had 16 digs as she did as good a job in the back row as she does in the front with her great speed.

North Rockland’s Keri Perrotto led the team with eight kills and Nastasha Pollard had six kills. Karly O’Brien had 11 assists.

In other matches today…Kelly Scanlon had 18 kills and six aces as Byram Hills beat Briarcliff 3-0…Pelham beat Eastchester 3-0 as Falyn Torelli had 13 kills and Parisa Dore had 23 assists…Croton had a five game win over Pleasantville as Annie Manes had 17 kills for the Tigers…Albertus Magnus beat Nanuet in four and Clarkstown South beat NYack in four…Ardsley beat Edgemont 3-0 with nine kills for Maggie Goldberg…and Westlake continued its winning ways with a 3-0 win over Putnam Valley to improve to 6-0 with 15 assists for Nicole Petrillo and seven kills for Bridgette Pennelle… Sleepy Hollow beat Hastings in four with 29 assists for Laura Kirshner.

What are some upcoming matches that people are looking forward to? Any votes for what teams look the best so far?

It’s hard to believe, to me at least, that the season is just a couple weeks old and Fox Lane and John Jay have already faced each other twice! The two teams have quite a history, meeting in the Class A section semis last year (that John Jay won) and the section finals two years ago (won by Fox Lane).
I was at the second meeting today and it was another four game win for Fox Lane. This time the Foxes won 25-21, 25-18, 25-27 and 25-8.
It was the Indians who took the lead early in both the first and second games. The first game was very close including a 19-19 tie.
In the second game, Fox Lane was able to give John Jay troubles on serve receive and build themselves a lead including six points on Mariah Elbe’s serve for a 14-9 lead. John Jay got as close as 20-17 but the Foxes never relinquished the lead, winning the game when the Indians hit a ball into the net.
The third game was the most intense it seemed as the potentially decisive game. John Jay grabbed the momentum early and built a big lead early, winning seven straight points on Emma Sheeran’s serve to go up 13-5. They led by as many as nine at 17-8.
But the Foxes were not out of it.
They pulled to 18-16 on a tip over the net from Nora Rugova and it moved later to a 24-24 tie and a 25-25 tie.
Emily Sanders then had a great tip over the net for John Jay to give them a 26-25 lead and they won the game when a Fox Lane hit landed out.
The Foxes regrouped before the fourth game and grabbed back the momentum, including eight straight points on Anelisa Wilhelm’s serve to go up 17-3.
The two are no doubt two of the elite in Class A with different looks to each team this year as opposed to last year. I’m looking forward to their third meeting this season!

The first match that stood out at me tonight was Kennedy’s 3-2 win over Briarcliff. I talked with Kennedy coach Colin Hanahoe and the Gaels will be featured in my notebook next Wednesday. They are 3-2 with a young team that did not have much varsity experience at the beginning of the season a few weeks ago.
The game scores were 25-23, 16-25, 19-25, 25-14 and 25-18. Megan Hickey had 10 kills for Kennedy and Taylor Pescetti had 34 assists for Briarcliff.
The only other five gamer I saw tonight was a 3-2 win for Dover over Dobbs Ferry.

Hen Hud defeated Ossining 3-0 at 25-18, 25-9, 25-13…Another win for the young Rye team as well, this time 3-1 over Port Chester with 14 assists for Samantha Lee…Fox Lane beat Yorktown with 27 assists for Rebecca Rubenstein and 12 kills for Nora Rugova. I will see the Foxes for the first time on Monday when I cover John Jay-Fox Lane. I’m excited, it should be a great match!

John Jay defeated Somers 3-1, Courtney McKoan had 18 kills and Emma Sheeran had 27 assists for the Indians..Haldane beat Tuckahoe 3-0.

Westlake defeated Byram Hills 3-0.. The Wildcats have now defeated most of the powers in Class B – Ardsley, Pelham and Byram Hills. Their offense is really the strength of their game. Bridgette Pennelle had 19 kills in this one.

And a late one coming in… Lakeland won in five over Brewster, 25-21, 23-25, 25-21, 16-25 and 25-8. Tori Jarosz had 22 kills with four blocks for the Hornets. Alisa Didio had 13 kills for Brewster.

I popped in to watch the second and third games of the Albertus Magnus-Pearl River match today at Pearl River on my way to the office. I had to run before it finished up or I would’ve been late getting in here for my shift.

Albertus won 25-19, 15-25, 25-21, 25-22.

From what I saw, Pearl River has pretty good defense, but like many of the smaller Rockland schools they seem to lack solid hitters. They can play, but they don’t have much finishing power.

Except for the Miller girls (junior Theresa and senior Catherine), Albertus doesn’t have a lot of height either, but smaller girls like Bianca Griffin and Lauren Capul can get the job done. Griffin had an off day and still ended up with 14 kills, 13 assists, and six aces. Capul had eight kills and 13 assists. Catherine Miller had eight kills and six blocks.

After losing two years in a row, Tappan Zee might beat Pearl River next week when they play their only match of the season. They certainly have the net-presence edge this season, with Brittni Alexander in the middle for the Dutchies.

Wow what a match it was today in Ardsley-Pelham. It went the distance with Ardsley prevailing, 25-20, 17-25, 26-24, 22-25, 26-24.
The match featured a lot of momentum swings, with Ardsley having it in the first game and Pelham grabbing it in the second.
The third game I thought was pretty decisive as Pelham was down 22-13 at one point but the Pelicans rallied to bring it to 22-21 on a Falyn Torelli kill. Ardsley had some trouble on serve receive – something coach Dave Ponterio addressed with the team during and after the match. Pelham went ahead 23-22 and 24-23 but the Panthers bounced back, tying it at 24-24 on a Pelham error, then taking a 25-24 lead on four hit call on Pelham and won 26-24 when a Pelham hit landed out.
Pelham coach Mark Finegan thought his team had too many missed serves and errors in the match. He said they had 25 missed serves.
Ponterio felt similar about Ardsley’s serve receive, counting 28 poor passes.
The fifth game was definitely tense with a few ties late. It was tied 24-24 and Ivana Monserrate had a kill to put Ardsley up 25-24. Ardsley won the match when Pelham was called for a backrow attack.
Both teams looked good on attack with 22 kills for Torelli and 18 for Kelly O’Brien on Pelham. Maggie Goldberg had 18 and Monserrate had 15 for Ardsley. Going with that, Julia Rose Schmid had 35 assists for Ardsley and Parisa Dore had 42 for Pelham.
These two teams are definitely part of the elite in Class B and I think we should all look forward to their next meeting at Pelham. Both are very talented and will be forces to be reckoned with. It’s also still very early in the season so it will be great to watch both continue to improve through the season!

In other action tonight, Hen Hud defeated Clarkstown South 3-0….North Rockland beat Mahopac 3-1…Byram Hills won 3-0 over Kennedy with 25 kills for Kelly Scanlon…Suffern beat Greeley 3-1 with 49 assists for Samantha Gutmann…Croton beat Briarcliff 3-0… Putnam Valley and Pleasantville went the distance with the Tigers prevailing.
That was the last match I was attending this week but Dan and I will continue to keep everyone posted on the rest of the week’s happenings!