East Hampton Boys Volleyball Is Eliminated by Hauppauge in Suffolk County Division II Semis

After the East Hampton boys volleyball team lost, 3-0, at Hauppauge in the Suffolk County Division II semifinals on Saturday, many of the Bonackers came out of their postgame meeting with head coach Josh Brussell with tears in their eyes, visibly upset.

It wasn’t so much that they had lost, it was more that their journey and season had come to an abrupt close with their teammates after a strong season in which they went 7-7, earning themselves the third seed and another trip to the playoffs. Some of the seniors, such as Alex Lombardo, Hunter Eberhart and Calum Anderson, had been on the team since they were freshmen. In Lombardo and Eberhart’s case, they’ve been playing together since the seventh grade.

“These are the best four years I’ve ever had,” Lombardo said after the match.

Lombardo, and all of the players who spoke after the match for that matter, said Brussell creates a family atmosphere, which makes the end of the season so much tougher.

“Brussell starts us early,” Eberhart said. “He really cares for you and creates a family environment.”

“He teaches us to do our best,” Lombardo said. “He wants to see us succeed.”

After falling behind, 9-3, to start the match on Saturday, it was Brussell who called a timeout to regroup with his team. About halfway through the first set, the Bonackers appeared to be more locked in than they had been at the start, and while they dropped the first set, 25-17, it was clear they were going to give the No. 2 Eagles (11-4) some stiff competition the rest of the match, and that’s exactly what they did.

The second set saw both teams trade jabs throughout. After senior Nick Cordone scored a point for East Hampton, the match remained tied, 16-16, and the game was never separated by more than two points, until the end. The Bonackers were called for an out-of-rotation penalty to give Hauppauge a 21-19 lead, and the Eagles seized the opportunity from there. Senior Robert Gennari served a pair of aces, senior Liam Edgeworth and junior Dominick Utano teamed up for a block, and then an unforced error by the Bonackers closed what had been a competitive and back and forth set at 25-19.

The third set started in similar fashion and this time Bonac wouldn’t go down as easy. After senior Stephen Feron’s kill gave Hauppauge a 24-22 lead with match point on the line, Anderson kept the match going with a kill of his own, then Lombardo and Eberhart teamed up for a block, tying the match, 24-24.

Both teams continued to trade point after point. When one team went up a point it seemed that might be the end, but the other team responded. Eventually, a pair of points by Joseph Valenza clinched the set and match for Hauppauge, which played top-seed and defending state champion Eastport-South Manor in the county championship on Wednesday.

Brussell said part of the issue he has with how boys volleyball is set up within the county, with all teams playing in one division, is it doesn’t allow for a lot of the Division II teams to play one another during the regular season. The schedule is instead very scattered, with many of the Division II teams playing larger Division I teams, and so a lot of the teams went into the postseason not knowing much about one another.

What East Hampton learned, though, is that Hauppauge has a very senior-laden lineup that goes pretty deep on its bench, being able to call on a number of different players to step up as they did.

“Their outside [senior Aidan Doherty] is a hell of hitter,” Brussell said. “They’re a good, scrappy team. They played well. Best of luck to them against ESM.”

“[They] knew how to hit from every part of the court,” Anderson added. “Their middles played great, their outsides played good. They pass scrappy. They did a pretty damn good job serving.”

One thing the Bonac senior group, which also includes Colin Villante, Nick Schaefer and Jack Petscheitis, can be proud of is bringing the program back to being a perennial playoff team, after missing out during the pandemic-shortened season. In fact, the Bonackers had to cut their season short that year after six matches due to multiple COVID-related shutdowns. It was the only year in which East Hampton did not make the playoffs during Brussell’s long tenure as head coach.

But it’s clear going forward that East Hampton boys volleyball is back on track and the outgoing seniors are confident the team is in very good hands going forward.

“This team, they fight so hard,” Eberhart said. “Everything they do, they come out every day, put their minds to it, here six days a week, if someone was sick or hurt. They play as a team, they’re here trying their hardest. They’ll be back next year, for sure.”

“Pretty confident to say we might be one of the only teams on Long Island who doesn’t have club players, so just to rally the boys up in the offseason, get their minds thinking volleyball again, like, let’s get back in this,” Anderson explained “I know summer’s fun, but we’ve got to get back on the floor. And so that’s always rough. But after COVID, we just knew we had to put our heads down to the ground for the program. Kathy Masterson has been fantastic this year working with us and giving us all sorts of support. We really needed that, and two deep playoff runs ain’t bad.

“All of us, when the season ends, all we think about is we all go down start teaching those middle school kids up,” he continued. “We’ve got to start them young and get them going because Bonac is going to be back no matter what.”