A Big Win On Senior Night For Westhampton Beach Boys Volleyball

Every team, no matter the sport, hosts an annual Senior Night toward the end of the season to honor its outgoing players. They're all special in their own way, but when the Westhampton Beach boys volleyball team honored its eight seniors on Thursday, October 21, it carried a little bit more meaning.

Many of the seniors on this year’s squad are the last holdovers from what was the program’s best ever season in 2019, when the Hurricanes won both Suffolk County and Long Island Championships and eventually placed third in the state. Each of the team’s seniors — Josh Aponte, Conor Farnan, Chris Fernandez, Connor Gormley, Joe Green Jr., Dan Haber, Colbie Mason and Joe Ramos — were called out by their former head coach, Jackie Reed, who they had their magical season with and who is now the girls varsity volleyball head coach. After having their named called, the players ran through an arch of black, green and white balloons and handed bouquets of flowers to their parents and family members just prior to taking the court against Sachem North.

Then it was time to get to work.

​The Hurricanes jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the first game only to see the Flaming Arrows erase that early deficit and take a lead themselves. Eventually the ’Canes made their run, and after a service ace by Aponte and an error by Sachem, they went on to win the first set, 29-27.

The tight, back-and-forth victory propelled Westhampton Beach in the next two sets, as it won them somewhat handily, 25-19, 25-21, to win the match in three straight. It's thought to be the program’s first ever victory over Sachem North, according to head coach Josh Tuttle.

“Really good for us to get a win at home on Senior Day against Sachem North. Couldn’t ask for more,” he said. “Key words for our game today were showing some grit, and coming back to win the first set from behind definitely was grit defined. Then we were able to keep the momentum going for the next two sets. A lot of respect to Sachem North, they’re a great program.”

The team’s starting libero in Aponte said it was important to stay confident even through what were some lapses throughout the match.

“I think it’s just the defensive mentality and the next-point mentality — if you make an error, move on, next point,” he explained. “We've had a little bit of trouble closing the gap at the end of the set the last few games, but I think if we’re able to keep that defensive mentality and keep on going then we can close out sets pretty easily.”

Senior Joe Green Jr. had seven kills, four digs and a pair of blocks, junior Declan Kerns had seven kills and three blocks, and sophomore Seth Terry had five kills and five digs.

Tuttle said that with more than half the team being seniors he feels like every game is Senior Day, but that he holds each and every one of them dear to him because he’s grown with them, having coached them from junior varsity and up through varsity the past six years.

“I really feel like I've gotten to know them,” he said. “I'm probably going to shed a tear at the end of the season when our time together is done, but they mean the world to me, just what they do on the court as volleyball players and what they do off the court as young men is just outstanding.”

Conor Farnan, who was one of the members of that 2019 team and finished the match with 25 assists, eight digs, a kill and a block, said the program has certainly come a long way.

“A few years ago we would have never even thought of beating Sachem North, but, you know, kind of came in with a chip on our shoulder and played hard and I think it showed,” he said.

Aponte, who finished with four aces and 13 digs, said Senior Night meant a lot to him.

“It feels like just yesterday I was here watching the guys that graduated four years ago on their Senior Night,” he said. “It’s really nice to have my parents, my aunt, my grandma here to support me. It means so much to be a senior, a little bittersweet, but it means so much to me.”

Thursday's victory also ended what was a four-match losing skid, in fact, after winning their first four matches of the season, the ’Canes (6-6, 123.15 power points) have lost six of their past eight matches. Many of those matches were against some of the toughest and largest schools in the county, and a few of those went to a full five sets.

Tuttle and his players were not at all discouraged by recent results and are keeping their focus set on returning to the county championship, which they have done the past two seasons.

“We’ve definitely been getting a little bruised up in the win/loss column, but we feel like we’re still progressing. We feel like we just have little adjustments to make. We feel like we’re really close to having a much different record if a couple things went differently,” Tuttle explained. “We just knew that we had to say positive, stick with it and those wins would come.”

“I think we’re going to be fine no matter what, but it definitely helped with momentum going into the playoffs,” Farnan said of Thursday’s victory.

Senior Daniel Haber, the team’s biggest offensive weapon who paced the offense on Thursday with 10 kills, brought some levity to the situation.

“It gives us a spark of hope,” he quipped of Thursday’s victory. All kidding aside, it felt great to get into the win column, Haber added. “This game, it was a highly anticipated game. We knew it was gonna be tough, but I guess we just wanted it more in the end. It was a good outcome.”

Westhampton Beach has two more matches at Commack and Lindenhurst this upcoming Tuesday and Wednesday. Regardless of what happens in those matches, the ’Canes are expected to grab the number two seed in the Division II playoffs behind top seed and currently undefeated rival Eastport-South Manor. The Sharks defeated the ’Canes in last season’s county final, then again in an early-season matchup earlier this fall, but the ’Canes are staying confident should they meet again down the road.

“I think if we can continue playing and progressing at the rate we have been these past few weeks … ESM doesn’t stand a chance,” Haber said. “I know they’re all great players but I think our six will beat their six in the next few weeks.”