Westhampton Beach Girls Soccer Ends 11-Year Playoff Drought

For the first time in 11 years, the Westhampton Beach girls soccer team is heading to the playoffs.

The Hurricanes (7-4 in League IV, 7-5-1 overall) secured their spot in the Suffolk County Class A bracket with a 5-0 victory over East Hampton/Pierson at home on October 13, after having already defeated host Port Jefferson, 6-0, on October 11.

The first round of the playoffs are expected to begin this Saturday, October 22, at the higher seed. For up-to-date brackets go to sectionxi.org.

Westhampton Beach head coach Erika Habersaat, who has been at the helm since before 2011, said she’s coached a lot of great teams between then and now, but this year’s group earned some big wins early on, such as a 1-0 victory at Bayport-Blue Point on September 9 and a 2-1 win at home over Comsewogue on September 16, that put themselves in position to clinch in the second half of the season.

It’s very exciting, she said, to finally punch through and get back to the playoffs — and her players agreed.

“​After being on the team for three years and finally making the playoffs, it makes me feel like all the hard work that the team and coaches have been putting into the program is finally paying off,” said junior Sarah Gormley, now in her third year on varsity. “I think the team this year has really good chemistry with each other and a really good team dynamic because we are all friends on and off the field. I feel that we have been able to play together as a team a lot more than in previous seasons. Also, considering we were a very young team last year, we have had some time playing together and getting to know each other’s strengths as we continue to grow as a team.”

“We are all so excited to have finally excelled as a team in a sport we all love,” junior Katie Baker added. “The hard work and dedication all the players, coaches and families put in this year is definitely amazing. You can tell how badly we all want this. I think we all knew in the beginning of the season, after winning such close games, that we had the capability of making it far. We are such a young team, too, and I think we all have a connection that I haven’t really felt as strongly with any of the girls from previous years. The off-the-field connections make us work together so well on the field which has brought us to where we are.”

The Hurricanes have a good mixture of veteran and young players. Along with Gormley and Baker, the team has eight seniors — including four-year standout Amanda Shannon — who were all recognized before the win over East Hampton, that stabilized an otherwise young team. Shannon, Gormley and sophomore Mia Valenzuela have been on varsity for three years together, and last year’s group of juniors and sophomores gained a valuable year of experience, Habersaat said. Sophomore Lily Strebel and sophomore Ali Munch rarely come off the field on defense, said Habersaat, who added that the addition of freshman Khloe Hoda, who scored a hat trick in the win at Port Jeff, has been a valuable addition, either up top as a forward or in the midfield.

Both Habersaat and Gormley gave a lot of credit to freshman goalie Ava Failla, who, as an eighth-grader last year, was the starting goalie for junior varsity before making the jump to varsity.

“I think that experience helped her a lot,” Habersaat said. “She has come up big for us a few times.

“I also think that our goalie, Ava Fialla, has had a huge impact and has kept us in those really close games where we were able to pull out a win,” Gormley said.

As of press time, with two games still to be played to finish out the regular season, Habersaat was unsure where her team might fall in the brackets, but said that winning their final two games would certainly help. Either way, the players feel confident they can be victorious no matter who they may face in the first round.

“We know that, whoever we verse, it is gonna be a tough game. But we have been able to play hard through all of our close games this season, even through overtime, and still come out on top,” Gormley said. “We are going in with the mindset that we can win. We all really want it and to go far this season and we all believe that we have the capabilities to do it.

“It certainly won’t be an easy battle, but it is definitely one we are excited to fight,” Baker added.