Sports
Lions Oust Sachem North From Volleyball Playoffs
West Islip advances to the Suffolk Class AA quarterfinals, will play Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
West Islip's girls volleyball team defeated the Sachem North Flaming Arrows for the second time in less than a week on Thursday night—but this time the victory sent the Lions to the next round of the Suffolk Class AA playoffs.
The No. 5 Lady Lions (14-4) defeated the visiting No. 12 Arrows 3-0 in the first round of the playoffs, but unlike the last time they met on Oct. 29, it was a hard-fought battle, rather than straight domination on the Lions' part.
"We tend to start flat. That's the way our team has been all year," said Lions head coach Jim Klimkoski. "We've lost I'd say 80-percent of the first games this year."
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Although the Lions didn't lose the first game, they sure made it a lot closer than they would have liked. The Arrows, who were making their first postseason appearance in three years, came out ready to play, battling the Lions in a back-and-forth contest.
"Everybody was really excited since it was our first playoff game," Arrows' Sam Picco said. "We were really fired up."
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But the Lions were able to pull out a victory in game one, winning 25-23. "We knew we had to pick it up," said Lions captain Erin Byrnes. "We knew that if we didn't pick it up we were going to go home."
"We came very close to pulling that first game out, we had it and they took it out of our hands," said Arrows head coach Ed Haliasz. "All the credit in the world to West Islip, they did a great job."
After the less than stellar first game, the Lions came alive in the second.
"A lot of times with our team, we pick up the energy once we get better," said senior Taylor Kordich. "The crowd was going and we did so much better."
Whether it was the crowd, or their tendency to start slow, the Lions took control of game two once Rainy Hodgson stepped up to serve midway through the game. With the score 13-11, the Arrows seemed to be going toe-to-toe with the Lions again; until Hodgson served for six consecutive points. The Lions jumped out to a 19-11 lead and would never look back.
"The second game we were able to get into a good rhythm," Klimkoski said. "I was very happy with the way they played the second game."
The Arrows refused to go away, though. West Islip actually trailed 13-14 at one point until, once again, they went on a strong rally at the serving line, this time behind Byrnes.
"After you keep serving to the same girls, you pretty much get it down," said Byrnes of her seven serves, which resulted in Lions' points. "You find the person to serve it to, and keep serving to her."
The Arrows closed the gap to get within four of the Lions, but it was too little, too late. The Lions closed out the game with a 25-17 victory.
"She had like 15 or 16 kills [on last Friday's game] and they couldn't stop her," Klimkoski said of Byrnes' strong play against Sachem North in the two contests this week. "It just carried over to tonight's game." Byrnes finished the night with 13 kills and three aces.
It wasn't as dominating a victory as the last time these two teams met, but in the end, the Lions are advancing to round two. West Islip will take on the winner of the Connetquot/Half Hollow Hills West game on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals.
"We were like you know what, it's playoffs, you have to come in strong and that's what we did," Kordich said. "We did what we had to do and that's all that matters,"