By TONY BELLISSIMO
These girls never play scared, and they always play together, Lady Bulldogs coach Marie Viggiano said after the 25-23, 25-12, 22-25, 25-23 victory. I'm so happy for them. It hasn't sunk in yet that Thursday morning we'll be on a bus and on our way upstate.
Hewlett got 32 assists from senior setter Meghan Doyle and a combined 29 kills from seniors Alyssa Richman and Jessica Lubeski to advance to the New York State Class B Final Four at SUNY-Cortland. The Lady Bulldogs will take part in pool play on Friday, and the top two teams will meet for the state championship on Saturday at 4 p.m.
As great as it was to win the county, we didn't want to take the happy-to-be-here approach for Long Island like we did four years ago, said Viggiano, who guided the team to the Nassau crown in 1999, when it lost the LI final to Half Hollow Hills West.
Hewlett took control of the first game thanks to strong serving by junior Tiffany Chiou (four points) and Lubeski (six). It led 19-11 and withstood an East Hampton rally to take a lead for the fourth time in five playoff matches.
The second game was no contest, as Doyle spread the wealth and Hewlett's new-look offense started to roll. The first one could've gone either way, but we came out so strong for the second game and kept the momentum, Viggiano said.
The Suffolk champion Bonackers, who came into the match undefeated, kept Hewlett's celebration on ice by winning the third game and fighting back from 23-13 and 24-16 deficits in the fourth game.
I think we started to panic a little with such a big lead, Viggiano said. We were so close to winning that instead of finishing out the match, we got too excited.
The championship point, an East Hampton serve that sailed out of bounds, couldn't come soon enough. And the Lady Bulldogs, who had to scratch and claw their way to a .500 finish in the regular season, reached the top of a mountain once considered unclimbable.
