Brandes, Pensa-Johnson To Lead Re-Equipped Hampton Bays Girls Volleyball Team

Despite the loss of six seniors, Hampton Bays girls volleyball coach Andy Fotopoulos said his revamped team has all the tools necessary to take home every match this season.

“I feel that this year’s team will be able to compete and win every match, although it will take a collective effort,” Fotopoulos said. “We cannot afford to bring any less than our best in every match, and we should be able to side-out with any team.”

Back to lead the Baymen are senior setter Julia Brandes and junior middle blocker Asha Pensa-Johnson, both of whom were key contributors last season, and will be relied on heavily for their leadership and skills and are much improved, according to their coach.

“Julia’s setting has been more consistent this year, and has improved on plays above the net,” the coach said. “Asha has shown great improvement in her defensive game. As returning League VI Player of the Year, she was always the most dominant force on the offensive end, and now her defense and serving is catching up.”

Senior outside hitter Brianna Arroyave also returned to the team and will be an offensive threat this year.

In Hampton Bays’ 3-1 win over Elwood-John Glenn to start the season on September 5 — 21-25, 25-21, 15-25, 25-13 — Pensa-Johnson had 17 kills, four blocks and five aces, Arroyave added eight kills and Brandes had 28 assists.

“With Julia touching every second ball and Asha hitting most third balls, we should be tough to beat,” Fotopoulos said. “Another strength is most of these girls have experienced a lot of success on the volleyball court and have been in tough situations on the court, which should help us in tight matches.”

New to the team and the district is junior libero Madysen Frederiksen, who transferred in from Iowa. Pulled up from the junior varsity squad to fill out the starting lineup are right side Shea Egan, outside hitter Taylor Meyers and middle blocker Kirra Schoerlin. Egan (four kills against John Glenn) and Meyers (six kills) were pulled up for playoffs and competed for some important points during the Baymens’ playoff run last year. The then 16-3 team made it to the Suffolk County Class A semifinals.

“As much as everyone on the team misses the girls who graduated, I still think we have the type of connection that is going to bring us far this year,” Brandes said. “Most of the girls on this year’s team have grown up together, giving us a special kind of trust between each other that I don’t think every other team has.”

While the senior admits she feels some added weight on her shoulders, she said she is motivated to close out her final chapter strong.

“I love having the responsibility on the court. The younger girls have become some of my closest friends and I think remembering that they are still learning and developing within the sport is very important when guiding them,” Brandes said. “Making sure everyone on and off the court keeps a positive mindset is also very important for the team as a whole, and I am so excited to see what this new team can do. I’m ready to take them as far as we can get.”

The senior said she has focused on upping her stamina as the starting setter, and added she’s seen vast improvement in senior defensive specialist Julianne Palmieri, who will round out the roster with senior defensive specialist Kenzie David, senior middle blocker and right side Kaya Raynor and junior outside hitters Lilly Maffia and Eden Brown.

“We have so many girls who have improved so much during the offseason. We all have so much trust in each other and our abilities. We all have so much fun when we are on the court, but also know when to be serious and lock in on the game,” Brandes said. “The strong connection that we have between all the girls on the court is definitely our strongest ability.”

The group has remained focused on growing almost all aspects of their game, including defense, passing and serving. Fotopoulos said he is looking forward to seeing how things come together when the Baymen face rival Bayport-Blue Point on September 17. The Baymen beat the Phantoms last year to clinch a share of the League VI title, and lost to the team two years ago in the Suffolk County finals. The coach said Sayville, last year’s Suffolk County Class A champion, moving into League VI will be another welcomed challenge.

“We are stressing serving to try and get some easier points off our serves and to put teams out of system in order to create easy opportunities for us on the defensive end,” Fotopoulos said. “We should be tough to beat if we can get better at passing and defense.”

Brandes said honing in on what will define this Baymen group’s game will be key.

“Our team consists mainly of undersized girls, so we have really been working on our covering and defense,” the senior said. “We all know we are going to play some teams with really big girls, and we need to make sure that if we can’t stop them up at the net, we have the defense covered.”

She said she believes the team’s status going deep in the playoffs the last two seasons will also be important. Hampton Bays hosts Miller Place on Saturday, September 14, at 2 p.m., before welcoming Bayport on Tuesday at 5:45 p.m.

“Being one of the most successful volleyball teams in the county definitely puts a sense of pressure on us to perform to the best of their abilities,” Brandes said. “But in turn, it puts that pressure on our opposing teams, which we can use to our advantage.”