Upset Not in the Cards for Pierson/Bridgehampton Girls Volleyball Against Top-Seeded Mattituck

The Pierson/Bridgehampton girls volleyball team lost both of its matches to Mattituck this season, but one of those went five sets, and if somewhat recent history meant anything, an upset could be had when the two teams met Friday evening at Cutchogue East Elementary School in the Suffolk County Class C semifinals.

Back in 2019, when some of the seniors playing on Friday night were freshmen, a similar scenario played itself out, with Mattituck taking both regular season matches only to lose to Pierson in a memorable five-set county championship match. The Whalers were hoping some of that same magic would happen again, but this year’s Tuckers are formidable.

Top-seeded Mattituck, hosting the match at a nearby elementary school after a tornado damaged its home court a few weeks ago, defeated No. 4 Pierson, 3-0, in set scores of 25-14, 25-17, 25-11. No, there would be no upset this time around.

Defending Long Island Class C Champion Mattituck will face No. 2 Port Jefferson in the Suffolk County Class C Championship on November 7 at Hauppauge High School at 7:30 p.m., or directly after the Class AA title game.

“We really thought that we had the ability to come in and play a good game and possibly win,” first-year Pierson head coach Hilary Rewinski said after the loss. “We worked on the things we needed to work on, like blocking, covering the tips, getting digs off the hits, and we did all of that in this game much better than we did all season.”

After falling behind early in the first set, eventually losing it by 11, the Whalers went back to work in the second with a much cleaner game. Pierson senior Grace Flanagan, who led the team with 11 kills, started a bit of a rally in the middle of the second set, scoring three straight points for Pierson with back-to-back kills and a service ace to make it a 20-17 game. But back-to-back points by Mattituck senior Abby Woods (game-high 15 kills) later in the match helped the Tuckers increase their lead, then junior Jolin Chen’s ace clinched the set.

Fittingly enough for the Tuckers, it was Woods again who clinched the third set, and match, with a kill.

“Basically what we did is we studied the games that we played against Mattituck. We knew that they were going to have tough hitters and a great defense,” Rewinski explained. “We really needed to get a good pass, set up our strong hitters, which I felt that we did and we were blocking better than we did in the past.

“I don't think that the score reflected how we played,” she added. “I think we played a really strong game and we had some really good volleys where we were going back and forth, three, five times. So I’m really proud of the way the girls played.”

Joining Flanagan at graduation this spring will be Lucie Bifulk, Finn Goodale, Sadie Lattanzio and Ashley Weatherwax, a group that Rewinski said she will certainly miss.

“So this is my first year coaching at Pierson, the seniors really made it such an extraordinary year for the team, but for me especially,” she said. “They really taught me a lot about what it means to be a Whaler, which is great, just little things like that. And they taught me a lot about the game. They're just such a great group.”

The bulk of the team is returning, along with starters Helena Kolhoff and Lyra Aubry, who were juniors this year, Alex Kolhoff, who was a sophomore, and libero Zeza Leitao, who was a freshman. Rewinski, who helped steer the team to an 8-6 record in League VIII play this fall, expects things to be different next season with five starters graduating, but expectations will remain the same.

“I’m hopeful that the girls coming up from JV from Jackie Andersen's team are going to want to play hard like we did this year,” she said. “I think they’re going to see what we did with what we had and come next season ready to play and do really well.”