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Photos by Cailin Riley
Every high school team’s ultimate dream is to win a state championship, and each team has its own specific motivations for winning.
For the members of the East Hampton girls volleyball team, their drive to bring home a state title was certainly an unselfish pursuit.
The Lady Bonackers didn’t achieve their ultimate goal upstate New York over the weekend, losing five of six sets in pool play in the New York State Championships in Glens Falls on Saturday. But while they were disappointed to see their season end, they said their only true sadness came from the fact that they couldn’t hand a championship plaque to head coach Kathy McGeehan, who has been at the helm of the program for 30 years.
“Overall, it was a great season,” senior setter Sarah Philipbar said after the Lady Bonackers lost two sets to Burnt Hills, which knocked them out of the running for the state crown. “I’m just upset that we couldn’t do this for Stranny.”
Philipbar—referring to her coach by her nickname, a shortened version of her maiden name—said that she and her teammates were motivated to win by the deep respect and admiration they have for McGeehan, who has coached the team’s seven seniors since they were in seventh grade. Philipbar referred to McGeehan as her “second mom.”
“I wanted this for her,” Philipbar said. “I think everyone wanted it for her, more than for ourselves.”
Philipbar’s fellow captains Rachel Haab and Shaina Preiss nodded in agreement.
“She’s worked so hard over the past years she’s coached,” Haab said. “She’s never been in this position, so we just wanted to go all out and win.”
The admiration is mutual between coach and players, and knowing that her players were driven by their collective desire to bring her a championship brought McGeehan to tears after the final set.
“There’s a definite bond between these seniors and myself,” she said. “It kind of chokes me up a little bit. But I’ve told them all along they have to do it for themselves, so I hope there was a little bit of that going on as well.”
East Hampton’s three opponents in the state final four—Victor (Section V, Genesee Valley), Burnt Hills (Section II, Captial District) and Cornwall (Section IX, Duchess, Orange, Sullivan, Ulster)—were all at Glens Falls last season. Victor beat Cornwall to win the state championship for the second consecutive season on Sunday and did not drop a single set during the tournament.
Each team played two sets against the other three teams and the teams with the best records advanced to the final on Sunday. The Lady Bonackers faced Victor first, dropping the first set 25-14 and losing the second set 25-12. East Hampton had an early 6-5 lead before the Lady Blue Devils took control of the match with strong hitting, serving and blocking. Six-foot middle hitters Annie Portland and Taylor Ryan were a force at the net, mixing in powerful hits that landed just inbounds at the corners and sidelines along with tipped balls and short serves that East Hampton was unprepared for at times. Senior hitter Jessica Fessler went on serve with Victor up 8-7 and by the time her service run was over, Victor had a 12-8 lead. Senior setter Brigid Moore went on serve with a 14-9 lead and by the time she was done, the Lady Blue Devils were up 21-9.
It was more of the same in the second set, with Victor players continuing to show off their ability to perfectly place the ball on tips, hits and serves.
Given the talent of the Lady Blue Devils—who dominated all their opponents—McGeehan said she was not unhappy with the way her team played.
“Victor is an amazing team,” she said. “We haven’t seen a team like that all year and with the exception of a couple of long runs, I think they were battling.”
After dropping two sets to Victor, the Lady Bonackers took on Cornwall, who opened the day by beating Burnt Hills in two sets. The Lady Bonackers came out firing in the first set against the Lady Dragons and played their best match of the day, winning 25-15. East Hampton senior Shaina Preiss went on serve with her team leading 3-1 and paced her team to a 9-1 lead, with two aces during that span. Preiss, Stavola and junior Myra O’Neal did a nice job in the hitting department and the Lady Bonackers limited mistakes while the Cornwall players hit balls out of bounds and had trouble getting into a rhythm.
In the second set, however, momentum shifted. Cornwall got off to a great start, taking a 5-1 lead on an ace by senior Justine Duryea. East Hampton battled back and tied the set at 13-13 on a kill by Kirsten Brierly but Cornwall’s talented hitter Alexandra Gagliano started getting hot, putting home kills and also giving her team a strong blocking presence at the net. Cornwall went on an 8-1 run to get to a 22-15 lead and East Hampton couldn’t recover.
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