This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

West Islip Eliminates Sachem from Girls Volleyball Playoffs

No. 5 Lions oust Arrows in first round battle.

Although the Sachem North's girls volleyball team was eliminated from the playoffs Thursday night, they scored a moral victory.

"They really demolished us last time," said senior Sam Picco. "I think we came out today and gave it our best shot. It was a pretty good end to a season."

The Arrows, who were beaten badly 3-0 by the West Islip Lions on Oct. 29, were ousted from the playoffs by those same Lions, losing once again 3-0, but didn't go down without a fight at West Islip High School this week.

Find out what's happening in Sachemwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Arrows took it to the Lions in a back-and-forth first game, which ultimately saw the Lions end up with a 25-23 victory.

"Everybody was really excited since it was our first playoff game," Picco said. "We were really fired up."

Find out what's happening in Sachemwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Thursday night marked the first time in three years that the Arrows advanced to the playoffs.

"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 losing the first game by a close margin, the Arrows came out flat in their second.

"Lack of communication and things just fell apart," said Arrows' Jenna Pierro of her team's performance in the second game. "We were working hard but we just got tired out."

The Arrows once again went toe-to-toe with the No. 5 Lions, until West Islip's Rainy Hodgson stepped up to serve.

With the score 13-11, Hodgson's serves resulted in six unanswered points for the Lions. The Lions finished off Hodgson's rally by winning by a score of 25-12.

"We didn't really play our best that second game," Picco said. "We were just more fired up that first game."

The third and final game for the Arrows was more reminiscent of their first. Sachem was able to take the lead, going ahead of the Lions 11-9 midway through the game.

"They came out and battled and played very, very hard," said Haliasz. "They showed again their true heart after getting beat up that second game."

Much like the second game however, the Lions went on a rampage when captain Erica Byrnes stepped up to serve.

With the Lions down 13-14, Byrnes scored seven-consecutive points, putting the Lions up 20-14.

By that time, it was too much for the Arrows to come back from. Four points was the closest Sachem came to closing the gap, ultimately losing 25-17 to finish the match and the season.

"We needed to prove to ourselves that we can't give up," said Picco of the Arrows' effort in the third game. "It was our last game and we needed to leave everything out on the court."

Despite the loss, the Arrows were able to finally say they had a successful season, something they haven't been able to hang their hat on in the past few years.

"Our first goal going into the season was getting out of that rut from the last two seasons and making the playoffs," Haliasz said. "Obviously we set our goals much higher once that goal was accomplished. We came out and put the effort forth, but we just came up a little bit short."

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?