Hampton Bays Girls Volleyball Team Advances to Class A Semifinals

For Tania Quiros, Tuesday night’s playoff win was a monumental one for the Hampton Bays girls volleyball team.

That’s because not only did the Baymen best No. 4-seeded Kings Park in a tiebreak set to advance to the Class A semifinal, they did it in a way they’ve struggled to before. Despite No. 5 Hampton Bays being up two sets to none, the Kingsmen have been a powerhouse program for some time, and were not going to give up easily. After claiming the next two sets to force a fifth, the Baymen were on the downside of momentum, but came away with some huge points when it mattered most to secure a narrow 3-2 win — 25-20, 25-19, 17-25, 17-25, 15-13.

“It feels like we’ve really accomplished something,” said Quiros, a senior outside hitter who finished with 14 kills and 23 digs. “It’s so repetitive — us getting in our heads — so it feels like we’ve finally overcome that hurdle. It was a really close game, but we came together and I’m just really satisfied with how things turned out.”

The Baymen (9-3), she said, entered the road contest certain they were coming away with a victory, and that showed early on. The two teams kept things tight in the opening set, but Kings Park took a three-point lead, 17-14, on one of many hits just inside the back corner of the court. That didn’t deter Quiros, who sandwiched a Kingsmen violation with a tip and a spike off blockers to retie the match for the sixth time to that point, at 17-17.

“I felt really good,” Quiros said. “The passes and sets were good, and there was a lot of energy from the crowd.”

From there, it was smooth sailing for the Baymen, who went on an 8-3 run to take the set. The second proved much like the first, with Hampton Bays boasting a slightly larger advantage through most of it, but Kings Park (10-5) kept chipping away until it closed within one, 13-12. But it was for the last time. A Quiros kill started a four-point tare that forced Kings Park to call for a timeout, and it didn’t do much good, as after the Kingsmen recorded the first point out of the break, Hampton Bays went on a 6-2 run to bring the score to 23-15. They had forced their opponents to make multiple errors along the way, but the Baymen were called for a few violations of their own before eventually pulling away with their second straight set. Junior middle blocker Asha Pensa-Johnson, who won the first set on a kill, secured another of her team-high 18 to make it 24-19 before a Kings Park spike sent over and out of bounds sealed it.

“Usually you have one Asha or Tania every once in a while, but we have two special kids,” head coach Andy Fotopoulos said of his strong hitters. “If we can pass and set the ball to them, no one is stopping them.”

Senior Gianna Betta and junior Julia Brandes each had 16 assists. Senior middle blocker Nellie Nicolova was also key, contributing eight digs, six kills, three blocks, an ace and an assist.

“Nellie does great at the net,” her coach said. “Even being on the smaller side, she gets some big blocks and had some key serves. She’s a great athlete.”

Quiros’s huge hit tied the third at 6-6, once again proving how tense the match was, but the game started to slip away from Hampton Bays as Kings Park rattled off 10 straight points to take an 18-8 lead. Pensa-Johnson kills made it 19-12 and 21-15, and a Taylor Meyers ace earned the next point, but it was as close as the Baymen would come. The fourth set went much like the third, with Kings Park securing four straight for an 11-6 lead, with Hampton Bays struggling to come any closer.

“It was tough for a second there,” Pensa-Johnson said. “We definitely fell down, but we brought the energy when we needed it most.”

The junior middle blocker definitely did that and then some. She collected six kills and a block in the tiebreaker, dumping the ball into an empty hole on two separate occasions for nearly half of Hampton Bays’ points en route to the win.

“I just kept thinking about how I don’t want this to be our last game. I wanted to keep this going,” Pensa-Johnson said. “It motivated me to keep getting those kills, and now, this win is fueling me to want to win even more. It gives us the confidence. We can beat these strong teams we’ve never seen before.”

Hampton Bays was bumped up to Class A this season after a state reorganization to add a Class AAA to most sports, and despite being up against some stiff competition, earned a share of the League VI title. While the Baymen admit they were nervous heading into a matchup against a team that won its 11th straight Suffolk County crown in 2021, many of the Baymen were on last year’s squad that made it to the Class B championship game for the first time since 2009.

“They know what this pressure is like and they’re conditioned for this,” Fotopoulos said. “They love to play and this is a solid team.”

Quiros said the squad felt prepared, learning Kings Park’s strategies and practicing for how the Kingsmen’s hitters would swing.

“We did it over and over again until we got it right,” the senior said. “We’ve been working up to this since middle school. We knew we could go far with this team.”

Fotopoulos, who had retired after 28 years, took over the helm once more when the current Baymen were in middle school. His first team back won one match that season, and now, the program is making its second straight semifinal appearance when the Baymen play No. 1 Half Hollow Hills West Saturday, October 28, at Half Hollow Hills East High School at 11 a.m.

“If we play as a team, put all of our energy into it and give it our all, I know we can win,” Pensa-Johnson said.

Fotopoulos said the Baymen just have to remember that as with the win over Kings Park, nothing is given, but earned.

“I told them they were going to have to take it, and we did that the hard way,” Fotopoulos said. “I love these girls. This is a great group. We took a tougher road to get to this point, but we’re going to have to beat Hills West if we want to be county champs. So we’ll just have to do it in the semifinals.”