5 Photos
Asha Pensa-Johnson should continue to be a force on the court for the Baymen this fall. RON ESPOSITO
Tania Quiros will be expected to provide a good offensive punch for Hampton Bays this season. RON ESPOSITO
Mia Schoerlin is a key returning player for the Baymen this fall. RON ESPOSITO
Asha Pensa-Johnson was named Fourth Team All-State last season. MICHAEL O'CONNOR
Nellie Nicolova will continue to be a key starter for Hampton Bays this season. MICHAEL O'CONNOR
Last season was one for the record books for the Hampton Bays girls volleyball team, one that included defeating perennial powerhouse and rival Elwood-John Glenn — not once, but twice — en route to playing in its first Suffolk County Class B championship since 2009. The Baymen may have lost that championship match to another powerhouse, Bayport-Blue Point, but the foundation was laid thanks to the resurgence of the program that also brought a strong community following with it.
Following the loss in the championship, Hampton Bays lost a trio of seniors — Sophia Corredor, Lily Patek and Brianna Quiros — to graduation, all of whom were given credit by head coach Andy Fotopoulos for helping lead the program’s resurgence, some from when they were freshmen. They are still missed today, Fotopoulos said, but the core of the team is still intact, and while there are a couple of more obstacles this season — such as moving up to Class A from Class B — there’s no reason why, he said, his team can’t make a repeat appearance in another county championship.
“Our goal is to win the league.” Something, despite all of the his team’s success, it didn’t do last season, Fotopoulos said. “We’ll need to beat Bayport and Glenn in order to do that, but this year we want to try and win that league title. Counties are going to be tough with the way the state switched classes, we’re now an ‘A’ school. Along with Glenn and Bayport, we face teams like Sayville and Hills West and Harborfields, Kings Park, Westhampton. So making a return trip to the county finals won’t be easy, but if we can win the league title that will definitely help, and hopefully we can continue to play well.”
Hampton Bays will feature a good mix of veteran players with six seniors and seven juniors. Leading that list is junior and returning Fourth Team All-State middle blocker Asha Pensa-Johnson, senior outside hitter and All-Conference player Tania Quiros and senior middle and All-League player Nellie Nicolova. Senior setter Gianna Betta is also returning, as is senior Mia Schoerlin, who is moving to the outside after being the team’s starting libero last season.
Julia Brandeis, a junior, is coming up from junior varsity and will help out Betta in the setting duties. And Briana Valderama is another junior up from JV who will play on the right side.
There are two leagues this season that house all of the county’s Class A teams, League V and League VI. Hampton Bays will play in League VI with the aforementioned Bayport and Glenn, along with Miller Place, Mount Sinai and Shoreham-Wading River. There are no league crossovers like there used to be. Instead, each team was given a finite number of nonleagues to play, and the Baymen will be seeing some familiar East End teams in those matches, such as Westhampton Beach, East Hampton and Center Moriches.
Hampton Bays already won its first two nonleague matches over Pierson/Bridgehampton (3-0) on August 29 and Riverhead (3-1) on August 31. The Baymen played Shelter Island in another nonleague match on Wednesday, and after playing in the Eastport-South Manor Tournament this weekend, they will play their first league match of the season this Tuesday, September 12, at Miller Place at 6 p.m.
