Foley Takes Over As Head Coach Of East Hampton Girls Volleyball; Baymen Girls Volleyball Could End Five-Year Playoff Drought

Summer Foley, a 2010 East Hampton High School graduate, is taking over as head coach of the Bonac girls volleyball team, after Alex Choi served in the position the past few seasons. Choi is staying on as a varsity assistant coach.

Foley was a member of one of the program’s most successful seasons ever her senior year, helping that team go undefeated to win a league title, followed by Suffolk County and Long Island titles, and reaching the New York State Final Four. Kim Valverde, who was a teammate of Foley’s every year during their time on the volleyball team and played club ball and won multiple beach tournaments together, will coach the junior varsity team. Foley is excited to be at the helm, along with Valverde and Choi, who was a strong volleyball player himself at Westhampton Beach High School and has since become a well known coach among the club ball circuit.

“Between the three of us, our knowledge and love for the game will make us a great coaching staff and continue to make this program amazing,” Foley said.

East Hampton went 6-10 in League V this past spring to miss the playoffs, which is not common for what has been a perennially strong team. There a number of returning players — eight seniors to be exact — who are set on turning things around quickly.

​Leading that list are senior co-captains Faith Fenelon and Brooke Wittmer. Fenelon is the team’s starting setter, while Wittmer will handle libero duties as the team’s leading defensive specialist.

Sorell Miller, another senior, will start in the middle, while senior Julia Erickson will start as an outside hitter. Senior Brylinn Bushman, another defensive specialist, senior starting rightside hitter Maddy Brown and seniors Natalia Flores and Nora Conlon are also returning.

Baye Bogetti, Caroline Disunno, Jameson Grant, Katie Kuneth, Scout Lynch, Julianne Murray, Chloe Swickard and Emma Terry round up the rest of Bonac’s roster.

“I have a very strong team this season, so each starter has someone right behind them gunning for their spot,” Foley said. “It keeps practices really competitive and is also awesome for Coach Choi and I to watch and see the growth in each player.”

East Hampton, which is back competing in League IV, started the season with a 3-0 victory at home over Amityville on September 1. It will compete in an invitational at Center Moriches High School this Saturday, September 11, before returning home this Monday, September 14, to host Miller Place at 5:30 p.m.

After playing a very limited schedule of just four matches this past spring, the Southampton girls tennis team is back and at full strength.

Leading the team will be senior co-captains Madison Taylor and Shelby De Los Santos. Caroline and Georgina Wilutis, a senior and sophomore, respectively, who are sisters, are also returning, as are seniors Ines Burros and Monique Fuchs, who didn’t play in the spring but did the last full fall season in 2019.

Sophomores London Bess and Elizabeth Ayavaca and senior Haley Thayer are also returning, and freshman Riley Valk will be the team’s swing player, moving up and down between varsity and junior varsity throughout the season.

There were a number of changes to both boys and girls tennis for this school year. The addition of a state tournament that will now include both Nassau and Suffolk county schools led to a realignment of all the schools in the county. Southampton will now play in a small schools division with teams similar in enrollment size.

The Mariners lost their first match of the season, 7-0, at Shoreham-Wading River this past Friday and will play at Hampton Bays this Friday, September 10, at 4 p.m.

Information on the Hampton Bays girls tennis team was not provided.

With its entire roster intact from this past spring, and with a few key additions from junior varsity, Hampton Bays head coach Andy Fotopoulos thinks he could have a playoff team on his hands; the Baymen haven’t reached the postseason since 2016, the year Fotopoulos had retired before returning to coach the team two years ago.

Junior Bri Quiros, the team’s MVP and All-League player last season, is returning as the team’s starting setter and should set up a strong tandem with returning senior libero Aliyah Cukaj. Senior Meegan Lennon will return as the team’s main offensive weapon.

Senior Kati Mounts and freshman Asha Pensa-Johnson, who is up from JV, should form a formidable pair as middle blockers and control the net, Fotopoulos said. With the team starting two setters, senior setter Jordyn Meyers will get ample playing time, as will juniors Sophia Corredor and Lily Patek and sophomore Nellie Nicolova. Sophomore Tania Quiros, Bri’s younger sister, is up from JV, but will start as an outside hitter right away.

Seniors Elle Dunkirk and Mary Reister and junior Carly Dunn make up the rest of the Baymen roster.

Hampton Bays easily defeated host Greenport/Southold, 3-0, in its first match of the season on September 1 with set scores of 25-14, 25-9, 25-15. It will play in an invitational at Center Moriches High School this Saturday, September 11, and then hosts neighbor Westhampton Beach in a non-league match this Monday, September 13, at 5 p.m.

After taking the past year or so off for maternity leave, Keegan Bishop is back as head coach for the Hampton Bays girls soccer team and comes back to a fairly new team after it graduated nine seniors following the condensed spring season. Included in that group was a trio of the team’s top players in MVP Jennifer Serna, leading scorer and All-League player Cassidy Moore and the heart of the defense and All-League player Saorla Scully.

After having a roster of over 30 girls in the spring for one varsity team, Hampton Bays has gone back to having a varsity and junior varsity.

“Having two teams will help our program continue to grow and give the opportunity to all the girls on each roster to see more playing time, therefore gaining more experience and confidence,” Bishop said.

Leading the list of returning players will be tri-captains Sea Camey and Maria Teyul, both seniors, and Arlette Amador, a junior. Camey will play center midfield and forward while Teyul will play center back and Amador will move between both center back and central mid. Also returning are senior forward Melissa Guzman, junior center mid/forward Sammy Garcia, junior left mid Stephanie Caal and sophomore center back/center mid Perla Joya.

“Looking for these returning players to step up and push each other on and off the field,” Bishop said. “Many of them are taking on new leadership roles after losing nine seniors.”

New to the team is starting eighth-grade goalkeeper Brianna Farrell and senior Isabella Jaramillo, a center back/striker who had transferred to Westhampton Beach at the start of her freshman year but is back in Hampton Bays.

Bishop said she is working to build communication and leadership amongst the girls and is looking to have the girls step up as communicators on and off the field.