At Hen Hud:

The Sailors took first place defeating Westlake 25-10, 25-18 in the final in this 20 team charity tournament. All proceeds from the day go to support breast cancer awareness and the American Cancer Society. The cause is close to the Sailors hearts as their two assistant coaches are breast cancer survivors.
Old Tappan (N.J.) came in third while Haldane held their own and took fourth place. In the lower division, Clarkstown South, North Rockland and John Jay all fell in the quarterfinals to out of area schools. Massapequa took first in the lower division.

The Mounties came out with a 25-7, 25-19, 25-19 victory tonight in what was a nice introduction to two Class AA favorites. Both teams lost several players to graduation and the teams on the court today were not the teams of years before. The Rams only have two returning Varsity players.

Though the first game score doesn’t show it, their was an air of excitement surrounding the court the whole time. The Mounties wanting to remain the victors and the Rams looking for a little revenge.

Today I was at the Westlake-Pearl River match at Westlake. Like the match I attended yesterday between Pelham and Mahopac, this one was pretty one-sided as well.

Westlake, last year’s state runner-up in Class C, looked pretty impressive despite losing four starters from last year’s squad. The Wildcats defeated Pearl River 3-0 with scores of 25-17, 25-16, 25-13.

Nicole Petrillo (11 kills and seven assists) and Jillian Dunne (six kills, eight assists, seven digs) and Michelle Klimas (eight kills, three aces) led the way for Westlake, which is 2-0 and also won the Yorktown tournament on Saturday.

Co-coach Jen Ferrauto credited that day with her team really coming together despite the turnover.

Meanwhile, Pearl River is going through a major transition having lost nine seniors from last year’s team that made the sectional semifinals in Class B.

But like last year’s team, which started 0-5 before rallying, coach Arlene Kramer feels her young squad (9 juniors, 3 sophomores) will only get better as the season progresses.

I just got back from the highly anticipated Pelham vs. Hen Hud meeting. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much of a match.

Hen Hud cruised to a 3-0 win, with game scores of 25-15, 25-15, 25-8.

The Sailors looked fantastic in their first match. Kami Nethersole had 14 kills, Ragin Jackson had 10 kills and fellow senior Michelle Jacobson had nine kills.

Jackie Tamburri, in her first regular season match since taking over at setter for older sister Nicole Tamburri, also had a tremendous day, finishing with 30 assists, seven digs, four kills, two blocks and an ace.

To Pelham’s credit, senior Parisa Dore, arguably the team’s top player was suspended due to a “school-related matter,” according to Pelham coach Mark Finegan.

Falyn Torelli had six kills and 10 digs and Katie McNenney had seven kills and seven digs to lead Pelham (1-1).

After the game, Hen Hud coach Diane Swertfager was still very impressed with Pelham, who ultimately could be her team’s toughest challenge in winning Class B. It was tough to see that today, but this team should be a force once Dore gets back in the lineup.

Beating Hen Hud, though? It wouldn’t surprise me if no team is able to pull it off this season.

Pelham won its own tournament today, defeating Francis Lewis (Queens) in the final, 25-21, 17-25, 25-22.

Parisa Dore, who had four aces and 19 assists, was named tournament MVP. Falyn Torelli and Katie McNenney also made the all-tournament team for the Pelicans.

In the semifinals, Pelham defeated Edgemont and Francis defeated New Rochelle. Edgemont’s Abby Wong and New Rochelle’s Ari Ekonomou were also named all-tournament.

The Pelicans are off to a great start, but they will be in for a stern test tomorrow when they travel to two-time defending Class A state champs, Hen Hud. With the Sailors moving down to B, this isn’t just a challenging out-of-conference matchup anymore for Pelham, but a possible playoff preview.

It will be interesting to see how this one ends up. I will be covering the game, so I’ll be sure to let you all know tomorrow night. Check back for details.

Despite bad weather, the early morning tournaments were played. Here’s some results from the games.

Clarkstown North tournament:

The Rams came out the champions at their tournament yesterday, defeating Pearl River 26-24 in the final game.

After pool play, the fourth-seeded Pearl River faced top-seeded Middletown and second-seeded Clarkstown North played third-seeded Albertus Magnus. The Pirates upset the Middies 25-23 while the Rams rallied to 25-19 over the Falcons.

The tournament was a great way for the teams to build a team network will getting in some hands on game experience.

Sleepy Hollow tournament:

Here’s how the Rockland teams faired:

Nanuet came out with four wins and four losses in the 10-team tournament. The Golden Knights did not find themselves battling it out against Tappan Zee but did play Nyack going 1-1 in the pool play round.

Tappan Zee went 2-6 in pool play, splitting 1-1 with Carmel and Irvington and losing to Rye and Ursuline.

I couldn’t get in touch with the Nyack coach tonight but as soon as I hear from her I’ll update the post.

~Casey

There’s nothing like using a tournament to kick the season into high gear. A full days worth of volleyball will whip any player into shape and give the opportunity to look at the competition as well as who works on the court together.

In Rockland, Clarkstown North will be the host of a tournament including county rivals Albertus Magnus and Pearl River and class AA rival Scarsdale. As a ringer, Middletown will also be participating.

All the teams will have the opportunity to face each other in pool play and then will be followed by playoff games and finally a championship.

The first and second place teams will get plaques and the winning team will get individual medals as well.

(To the left: Kate Westervelt and Cat Darling in a preseason practice for Clarkstown North.)

This afternoon at Albertus Magnus High School, Section 1 opened it’s volleyball season in a five game slug fest between two rebuilding squads.

The Falcons were the victors at the end of the evening.

You can catch most of the action in tomorrow’s paper but here’s a few tidbits I thought deserved a little mentioning:

Both teams had some trouble with low hanging ceilings and the flow of the first three games was often interrupted but as both teams began to get a feel for the court, the last games really came to life.

Regina’s Jessica Pizzarello, a first year Varsity senior, finished the night with six aces – when she started with the Tigers she didn’t know how to serve.

Coach Liz Pugsley explained, “There’s four of them who are seniors and they are actually very good friends outside of the team. When it comes to time when they were bored they would toss the volleyball around. One of my girls, Jessica Pizzarello, when she came to Maria Regina didn’t know how to serve.” Pugsley added how dominating Pizzarello’s serve has become and can be crucial in games.