By MIKE CAPUTO
The youthful Lady Jets roster boasts players with an array of skills and talents, who have all had an impact in one way or another throughout the girls' volleyball season.
"I pretty much use everybody and they are contributing," Burnside said. "At different times, somebody else is hot."
The Lady Jets entered this season without its two standouts from a year ago and a roster made up of many players with little or no varsity experience. Those two graduating seniors, Emily Syers and Jamie Wilen, helped lead the Lady Jets to an appearance in the Nassau Class AA finals.
But seniors Alexa Borresen and Diana Briody also remember that playoff run very well, as they too were major contributors for East Meadow.
Although it is difficult to replace Syers and Wilen, Borresen and Briody have been doing very well to fill their void, and help lead their team to a 7-2 record in Conference AA.
"[Briody] has really stepped up her game quite a bit, which kind of makes up for Jamie graduating and now she is kind of taking over that role of being the big hitter," Burnside said. "And Alexa Borresen in the middle blocks well, serves well and has been hitting well."
The lethal combination of Borresen (13 digs, four blocks, 11 kills and six aces) and Briody (11 kills and 11 digs) led the Lady Jets to a thrilling four-set victory (25-21, 25-17, 11-25, 27-25) over conference foe Baldwin on Oct. 3. Becky Syers, a freshman and younger sister of Emily Syers, added 14 assists and 14 digs. Junior Nicole Pepe put some points on the board with nine aces along with five kills. "She has a terrific and intimidating serve, so she gets us a lot of points," Burnside said of Pepe. Senior Caitlin Betterly provides additional senior leadership from the middle.
Since Oct. 3, the Lady Jets have faced non-conference competition, including a straight sets home victory against Plainedge on Oct. 7 and a championship in the silver bracket of a tournament hosted by West Hempstead four days later. East Meadow continued its conference schedule on Tuesday with a home game against Port Washington. The match ended after Herald press time.
The Lady Jets travel to Plainview JFK on Thursday at 4:45 p.m. and play their final home game, Senior Day, against Long Beach on Monday, Oct. 20 at 4:30 p.m.
Long Beach and Massapequa are the only two teams to beat East Meadow, adding motivation to their second meetings with them, beginning with Monday's meeting against the second-place Marines.
"We didn't exactly play our best game, but hopefully the second time around we will play better," said Burnside, whose team sits in third place behind Massapequa and Long Beach. All eight teams in Conference AA-1 make the playoffs, while the top four seeds earn a bye into the quarterfinals.
Comments about this story? MCaputo@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
