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Mostly Cloudy West Hempstead rallies for title
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Katie Lynch served the championship point for the Lady Rams.
Ron Manfredi/Herald
After winning the first two sets of the Nassau County Class B girls’ volleyball championship match against No. 3 Floral Park, top-seeded West Hempstead all of a sudden found its back against the wall facing three match points in the decisive fifth set. The Lady Rams responded to the pressure, however, capturing five straight points to capture the title at C.W. Post last Thursday.
“They are fighters,” West Hempstead coach Suzanne Kenney moments after her team’s dramatic 25-18, 25-20, 21-25, 23-25, 26-24 win. “We just made plays when we needed to.”
Trailing 24-21 and facing the potential end to their season, two seniors stepped up large with back-to-back kills. Middle blocker Kaitlyn Gaynor brought West Hempstead within one and a spike by outside hitter Angelina Zaharias squared the fifth set at 24-24. After a Floral Park error, junior outside hitter Katie Lynch delivered a service ace to seal the county title for the Lady Rams.
West Hempstead advanced to the Long Island Class B final against undefeated John Glenn on Saturday at St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue and came up short in straight sets.
The Lady Rams’ ability to win a roller-coaster five setter in the county finals was attributed by Coach Kenney to them playing a highly competitive Conference I schedule. West Hempstead finished 6-12 but many of those losses came in close matches to schools much bigger in size like Massapequa, Long Beach, East Meadow and Baldwin. “We have fought all year long in our conference,” Kenney said. “We are in the best conference so they have been in positions where they are always fighting for points and that definitely has helped us.”
Winning the county championship was due in large part to the play of senior Zaharias, who had 25 kills and served up some key points down the stretch. “She does everything on the floor,” Kenney said. “It is a pleasure to watch her.”
Winning the title was a major goal for the Lady Rams since the beginning of the year and Kenney said after the Floral Park match that no matter what happened in the Long Island championship, 2009 has been a huge success for her program. The Lady Rams were a young team with Zaharias and Gaynor the only seniors.
“Winning this was really our focus and our goal and I’m just so proud of the girls,” Kenney said. “This is the icing on the cake.”
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