Season Preview: Bonac Boys Soccer, Girls Tennis, Volleyball Teams Look To Keep Momentum Going

Kathy Masterson said she is settling into her new post as East Hampton Athletic Director nicely after coming over from the same position following 16 years of service in the Westhampton Beach School District.

While the job is very similar in a lot of ways, she said, there are a few new wrinkles to the job in East Hampton, such as having girls swimming and field hockey teams, programs that Westhampton Beach never possessed. And, Masterson, who started the job on July 1, was put to work rather quickly when the charitable organization Hoops 4 Hope hosted its inaugural three-on-three basketball tournament at East Hampton High School on August 20. When the flooring company that was scheduled to put a brand new coat of varnish on the high school’s basketball court backed out less than week prior to the tournament, Masterson asked a lot from her building and grounds crew to do the best they could by doing the job themselves.

Hoops 4 Hope Founder Mark Crandall and Executive Director Anthony Allison were ecstatic with the job Masterson and her crew did. Masterson gave all the credit to her new coworkers and said it was a good way to get to know everyone.

“So many parents were coming up to me, ‘Thank you for coming.’ I was like, ‘This is my job, of course I’d be here,’” she said of the tournament. “I have to give all the credit to the custodians and my head of buildings and grounds crew. Our head custodians got on that floor and had it refinished and ready to go by that Saturday morning, and those people who played in that tournament were really the first people to play on the new coat.

“The change has been awesome, and in complete East Hampton fashion, every one person is nicer than the next. I totally felt welcome,” Masterson added. “Obviously, it was really hard leaving Westhampton Beach. They’ve always been like family to me there, but East Hampton has embraced me and welcomed me with open arms.”

With fall practices starting officially on August 22, Masterson said her coaches have been working diligently to get their teams in place, many of them by this week, with games starting as early as this past Tuesday.

The East Hampton/Pierson girls tennis team bounced back from a somewhat down year the season before with a 12-2 record in League II, qualifying as the No. 3 seed in the Section XI Team Tournament, in which it lost in the first round to No. 6 Patchogue-Medford. But after only losing one All-County player in Sandrine Becht to graduation, the majority of the team is returning, according to head coach Kevin McConville, with another year of varsity experience to help offset what is by and large a young team overall.

That’s evident in the fact that the Bonackers’ only other returning All-County player is a sophomore in Pierson’s Maya Molin. McConville said between Molin and another Pierson student-athlete, senior Riley Roesel, his team’s number one and two singles slots are all but locked up. Who will end up where will depend on what happens in challenge matches, McConville said.

Rounding out the rest of the singles lineup will be Pierson freshman Audrey Monaco, who played a vital role on last year’s team as an eighth-grader, along with East Hampton junior Lyla Wilson. East Hampton’s Lily Somers is the only other senior on the team along with Roesel, and has been a doubles players in year’s past. McConville said he still sees her playing in the top doubles pair, but with who is the question. East Hampton junior Carleigh Barletta, sophomore Stella Peterson, Pierson junior Rachel Monaco, Audrey’s older sister, and junior Samantha Pillco, the younger sister of Pamela Pillco who graduated a few years back and went on to play collegiately, all have good shots at cracking the starting lineup, McConville said.

“I’m still trying to figure out the rest of the doubles lineup because they’re all so even,” he said. “We should be solid all the way through. I really like our chances in the doubles. Having 10 girls back is huge because they all have that doubles education. So it makes it easy on me, and I told the team that the other day. It’s now gotten to the point where they can teach each other, and I can focus on other things.”

Outside of Shoreham-Wading River and William Floyd, who the Bonackers play back-to-back on September 7 and September 9, respectively, and Westhampton Beach, who they play September 19, McConville feels his team has a rather weak schedule. But that might allow for his young team to improve even more prior to postseason play.

“That’s the fun part, I’m looking forward to developing the young kids,” McConville said. “I had to turn away three, four girls to JV who definitely would have made varsity any other year.”

The girls began the season with nonleague play on Wednesday at home against Connetquot and will play at Bellport in another nonleague match this Thursday at 5 p.m.

The East Hampton girls soccer team only lost three players to graduation last season, namely starting center midfielder Melissa Quihuiri. But other than that, the majority of the team is returning and is looking to improve upon its 4-10 record from a year ago.

Bonac head coach Cara Nelson is encouraged by having 18 returning players and is hoping they can build upon last year’s experience. Returning are senior center mids Jocelyn Prieto and Tiffany Pesantez, senior forwards Claire McGovern and Skye Tanzmann and senior defenders Nicole Velez and Emily Flores.

Nelson is excited about the addition of freshman midfielder Hailey Benenaula and eighth-grade midfielder Kaylee Munoz, who are coming up from JV.

“While we have many returning players, we still face a difficult schedule with top opponents from across Suffolk County,” Nelson said. “We will be looking to our seniors’ experience to keep us in games throughout the season.”

East Hampton opened its season on Tuesday in a nonleague game at Riverhead, and will play at Port Jefferson on Tuesday, September 6, at 4:30 p.m.

Samantha James has taken over the East Hampton field hockey program after Dana Dragone led the team for one year last season. James played field hockey at Pierson from 2008 to 2010, playing in the state championship her senior year, and then went on to play at SUNY Oswego.

James is taking over a team that was in line for a postseason berth at times last season, but ultimately finished just outside with a 6-8 record. Despite missing three players to graduation, there are a number of girls returning.

Leading that list is senior defender Chloe Coleman, junior forward Emma McGrory, junior midfielder Melina Sarlo and freshman goalie Caeleigh Schuster.

James said she had 21 new players come out for the team this preseason, and 19 of them were freshmen. That allows both the varsity and junior varsity teams to have deep benches, James said. A few newcomers James is excited to have is sophomore defender Ava Tintle, sophomore forwards Kerri O’Donnell and Olivia Walsh and freshman defender Hailey Welsch.

East Hampton opens its season at home against Miller Place this Thursday at 5:45 p.m.

After losing at eventual state champion Eastport-South Manor in the opening round of the Suffolk County Division II playoffs for boys volleyball last season, the Bonackers still had smiles on their faces, and that was because of the renewed excitement surrounding the program after a disappointing shortened COVID season the year prior. The team only played a handful of matches before multiple COVID bouts ended that season early. It was the only season under head coach Josh Brussell the team didn’t make the playoffs.

Also fueling that excitement is the fact that the majority of the team is returning. Calum Anderson (outside hitter), Hunter Eberhart (middle) and Alex Lombardo (setter) are all returning, along with Isaac Rodriguez, who was more of a role player last year but is looking to start as an outside hitter this season. Cameron Mitchell (middle), Cash Muse (middle), Nick Schaefer (outside), Alan Rodriguez (libero), Colin Villante (defensive specialist) and Nick Cordone (outside) are all returning as well.

Brussell said that his team may be taking a step forward when others may be taking a step backwards, possibly, this season. ESM graduated seven players after its state-title run last year and numbers are apparently low for programs in Center Moriches and Shoreham-Wading River. The icing on the cake was when Kim Valverde, a standout volleyball player during her high school career at East Hampton and then in college, joined Brussell as an assistant coach.

“She is an incredible wealth of volleyball knowledge,” he said of Valverde.

“All the teams in our league seem to be restarting while we’re bringing people back so that’s definitely an advantage for us,” Brussell added. “The camaraderie among my team is really good. It should be very interesting.”

The Bonackers begin their season this Thursday at home against East Islip at 5:45 p.m.

Alex Choi, who was the head coach of the East Hampton girls volleyball team in 2019, is back atop the program as head coach after spending last season as an assistant coach to Summer Foley, who helped end the team’s two-year absence from postseason play.

After losing to Eastport-South Manor in the first round of the Suffolk County Class A playoffs, the Bonackers lost a handful of players to graduation, many of whom had years of varsity experience in setter Faith Fenelon, libero Brooke Wittmer and middle blockers Nora Conlon and Sorrel Miller. But Choi likes what he has coming back to fill those roles.

Returning are senior outside hitters Caroline DiSunno, Chloë Swickard and Emma Terry, senior setter Scout Lynch and junior middle blocker Katie Kuneth. Ella Eggert, who took a year off last year, has returned for her senior season and looks to be the team’s libero. Junior middle blocker Amina Guebli is also a key returner, Choi said.

The remaining players will be looking to fill a number of roles on the team and include seniors Baye Bogetti (setter/right side) and Jameson Grant (senior right side/defensive specialist), and juniors Lola Garneau (right side), Kim Hilario (outside/right side), Jhoselyne Munoz (outside/defensive specialist), Amaya Pingle (middle blocker) and Olivia Yellen (setter).

“The team looks like we have potential, after a little bit of fine-tuning, of course,” Choi said. “I think we have a strong offense this year and I can’t wait to hopefully surprise some opponents with it. Volleyball is a game of errors, whichever team makes the least errors wins, and I plan to make this team as efficient as I can.”

The girls start the season September 7 at Westhampton Beach at 4 p.m.

Editor’s note — Fall previews continue next week with cross country, boys golf, boys soccer and girls swimming.