Tags Posts tagged with "Lara Atalay"

Lara Atalay

Smithtown East's Brooke Berroyer (#1) is all smiles as she leads her team off the court following the win. Photo by Bill Landon

By Bill Landon

The Smithtown East girls’ volleyball team is peaking at the right time.

The team took care of business in the Class AA semifinals Nov. 7, avenging a semifinal loss to Ward Melville last season. The No. 2 Bulls came away victorious at home in straight sets against the No. 3 Patriots, 25-20, 25-12 and 25-23 to advance to the finals. The team will take on No. 1 Connetquot at Suffolk County Community College’s Brentwood campus Nov. 10 at 8 p.m.

Smithtown East's Haley Anderson sends the ball back over. Photo by Bill Landon
Smithtown East’s Haley Anderson sends the ball back over. Photo by Bill Landon

“I thought we were pretty consistent with our serving, and I just knew we could get it together,” said Smithtown East junior outsite hitter Morgan Catalonatto. “Now we’ll just continue do what we’ve been doing all season long.”

After a 5-5 tie in the opening set, the Bulls put together a string of service points. Couple that with crowd-gasping defense, and the team jumped out to a 24-19 advantage. Serving break point was junior setter Brooke Berroyer, who led her team to victory with 28 assists.

Ward Melville lost to the Bulls Oct. 18 in five sets, but the semifinal matchup was different.

The Bulls were everywhere on the court — high above the net, flat on the floor — and dig after dig the Smithtown East savored its advantage. Senior outside hitter and co-captain Haley Anderson went on a service tare and rattled off seven unanswered points to put her team out front 12-5 in the second set.

A threat in any row, Anderson also tallied 14 kills and 14 digs in the contest.

“As a team we needed to keep our composure, focus on each point, one point at a time, and not harp on the little mistakes,” Anderson said. “Steph Berdon really stepped it up — who is our middle — and Brooke Berroyer, she played well and that help us out.”

Ward Melville's Lara Atalay seves. Photo by Bill Landon
Ward Melville’s Lara Atalay seves. Photo by Bill Landon

Ward Melville began making mental errors — sending a service out of bounds and dropping two balls, which prompted Ward Melville head coach Charlie Fernandes to call timeout.

“We’ve been chasing ourselves in terms of unforced errors all season long, but in the past two playoff games they really cut down [on these],” Fernandes said. “I think tonight we were a little nervous and a little jumpy.”

Seizing the opportunity, the Bulls surged ahead 20-11 before an unforced error. Ward Melville wouldn’t score again though, and Smithtown East tallied the final five points to put the set away.

Smithtown East head coach George Alamia said he was surprised following the first two sets, knowing what Ward Melville has been able to accomplish on the court.

“I knew that the third set was going to be the toughest game — that’s an unbelievable program over there,” he said. “We followed their lead when I first started this program in 2005. It’s like the Patriots in the NFL, [but in volleyball], it’s the Ward Melville Patriots you follow. [You follow] a winning team, one that’s won a lot of championships, and I have tremendous respect for Charlie Fernandes.”

Smithtown East's Brook Berroyer and Steph Berdon battle at the net. Photo by Bill Landon
Smithtown East’s Brook Berroyer and Steph Berdon battle at the net. Photo by Bill Landon

Momentum began to shift midway through the third set when the Patriots, who trailed from the opening volley, clawed their way back to draw within a point, 13-12. The team wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

Ward Melville’s senior outside hitter Lara Atalay dished up a service kill to tie the game at 13-13, and scored again to give Ward Melville its first lead in the set. Both teams traded points to knot the score at 18-18. Again, it was back and forth as the Bulls scored the next three points, only to have the Patriots answer with three of their own to retie the game at 21-21. After a service error, Ward Melville scored next to retie the game at 22-22 and followed it up with a kill shot to edge ahead 23-22.

Berroyer, from the service line, led the Bulls to the tying point, and on the next serve, helped her team to a 24-23 advantage. Serving again for the go-ahead score, the Bulls made it 24-23 and Berroyer, like she’d done in each of the three sets, scored the final point for her team.

“We have a shot to win the county [championship] against probably the best team in the state — Connetquot,” Alamia said. “We’re going to go there, give our best shot and I think we’ll be alright.”

The top ranked League I girls’ volleyball team had a chance at revenge, and they made it count.

No. 1 Ward Melville fell to No. 2 Commack in five sets back in September for the Patriots first loss of the season. Since then, the girls’ volleyball team had its eyes on avenging its only League I defeat.

“It was a tough loss, but we definitely used it as fire to power ourselves to keep working,” senior libero Ellen Li said. “It’s something we looked at and we worked on and it made us work harder each day. We wanted nothing more than to come back.”

The Patriots fought back to sweep Commack in three sets on senior night Oct. 17, 25-21, 25-18 and 25-23.

Despite winning the match in straight sets, the affair was a constant battle.

“Last time we knew what we did wrong, and we turned a corner and fixed everything that went wrong in that game, in the games we played leading up to this game,” senior outside hitter Olivia Hynes said. “We can get into these holes, but we talk to each other and we get out of it right away.”

“We came through with strong defense and the serve receives when the score was tight. If we made an error we were able to push through it.”

— Lara Atalay

A short serve put Ward Melville ahead 10-5 midway through the first set, but the Cougars battled back to tie 13-13. After scoring the next point, Ward Melville head coach Charlie Fernandes was forced to call timeout.

“They keep getting in their own way, but they also battle their way out of it, so it’s pretty exciting,” he said. “We’re setting the ball well, we play nice defense and our middles are a big surprise to everybody — they’re really doing a great job. Everyone knew we had two good outsides, but to add the two middles and the right side, we have a very complete volleyball team.”

Commack went on a tare of its own to pull ahead 19-16 in the set, but junior middle blocker Schuyler Tasman came through with a block and a send over on volley that Commack could not recover, to tie the score 19-19. The two teams traded tallies over the next four points, but an out of bounds Commack hit and Tasman serve led Ward Melville to the first-set win.

“I’m happy that we won,” Fernandes said. “I think it puts us in a good position to hopefully win the league and that should seed us well for the playoffs. We’re still making too many unforced errors for my liking, but we still have a few weeks to get ready, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Ward Melville had an easier time taking the second set. The teams continued to trade points until a missed kill opportunity pulled Commack within one point, 19-18.

“We were strong getting out of tough situations,” Li said. “It’s perseverance and resilience — we’re always thinking about each other — even when we’re in tough situations we talk through it.”

“It’s perseverance and resilience — we’re always thinking about each other — even when we’re in tough situations we talk through it.”

—Ellen Li

Communication and chemistry helped the Patriots take the final six points for the 2-0 lead in the match.

The Patriots are comfortable in five-set matches, having won three so far this year, but they didn’t want to see that happen again against Commack. In the third set, down 23-21, a timeout helped the team regroup. An out of bounds Commack serve closed the gap to 23-22, and a botched dig evened the score. Ward Melville forced two more errors to sweep the game.

“We came through with strong defense and the serve receives when the score was tight,” senior outside hitter Lara Atalay said. “If we made an error, we were able to push through it and come through with a pass. It says a lot about our team. I trust my team and have a lot of confidence. We’ve had the ability to come through in any tight situation all season, and being able to come through in that tight ending was a great feeling.”

Hynes said she was happy to see her team enter the game with confidence and use that to its advantage, but she’d like to see that every time the team steps onto the court.

“This game we started off really strong and started off with a win, which set the tempo and created a different mindset for the whole game, so I want us to work on coming in strong every single game,” she said. “I wanted to look back to a great senior game we played here, so to be able to have that memory is irreplaceable.”

by -
0 2424
Smithtown East's Jackie Cuccarello and Kendra Harlow leap up to block a spike by Ward Melville's Alex Stein. Photo by Desirée Keegan

Victoria Tilley said that despite the Ward Melville girls’ volleyball team blanking 12 of its 13 regular-season opponents 3-0, the team has always had to battle back — and Monday was no different.

The Patriots had only lost one set the entire season and found themselves down 2-1 to another undefeated team, Smithtown East. Ward Melville wouldn’t go down without a fight though and won the fourth and decisive fifth set to secure its spot in the Suffolk County Class AA finals, 25-21, 21-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-14.

“It’s amazing how we came back,” the senior middle hitter and blocker said, grinning from ear to ear. “We’re sometimes late starters and it comes back to us. We trail a lot with teams, but we always know how to clam down and talk to each other, and it works every single time.”

Smithtown East had contributions from Kendra Harlow (19 kills), Haley Anderson (15 kills and 12 digs), Morgan Catalanotto (15 digs) and Jackie Cuccarello (42 assists) and went on a five-point tare in the third set and opened up the fourth with another five straight points before the Patriots put themselves on the board, but Ward Melville sophomore outside hitter Ashley Fuchs was the difference maker.

With the fourth set tied 14-14, a slide across the baseline for a dig helped put her team out in front and forced Smithtown East head coach George Alamia to call time-out. From there, although the Bulls tied it at 15-15, the Patriots never trailed again.

Ward-Melville-girls-volleyball-Alex-Stein-1-110915_Keeganw
Alex Stein serves up the ball in Ward Melville’s 3-2 Class AA semifinal win over Smithtown East on Nov. 9. Photo by Desirée Keegan

“We were making some hitting errors which is fine, and it’s hard to adjust to some hits off the net, but we all came together,” Ward Melville junior setter Cierra Low said. “We were down at some points but we always know we can come back together. We work as a team and when we got down we get in that huddle and tell each other to relax, that it’s all good and we’ll get back there and we did. We won.”

The Patriots’ defense was a weak point throughout the match, but the team continued to bounce back.

“We talked about some things that we wanted to do defensively and didn’t do it until the fourth game, but it did finally work out,” Ward Melville head coach Charles Fernandes said. “They were very calm; there was no panicking.”

As the Patriots climbed back to win the fourth set and fans cheered across the gymnasium, Ward Melville senior Alex Stein said she knew her team had it in them to pull through once more.

The outside hitter, who finished the game with 28 kills, 10 digs, three blocks and two aces, said she knew from the start that the team had a lot of potential.

Ward-Melville-girls-volleyball-celebration-2-110915_Keeganw
The Ward Melville girls’ volleyball team celebrates a point in the Patroits’ 3-2 win over Smithtown East in the Class AA semifinals. Photo by Desirée Keegan

“We knew we could go far if we worked for it, so it’s nice to see that we didn’t roll over and let them win,” she said. “Every game where there’s been a challenge we’ve been able to overcome it, especially when we’re down that’s when we really focus and work together. We’ve wanted this the whole season. We’ve been working as hard as we can since preseason for this moment, and we just took it.”

Tilley finished with 14 kills and four blocks, Fuchs added eight kills and eight digs, senior libero Claire O’Hern had nine digs and junior left side hitter Lara Atalay had 14 kills and three blocks.

With the win, Ward Melville moved on to face No. 1 Connetquot in the Suffolk County Class AA championship at Suffolk County Community College’s Brentwood campus today at 8 p.m.

Stein, who is the only player on the team to have also competed with the Patriots’ 2012 county champion team, is looking forward to the matchup.

“It’s not going to be easy but we’re going to work as hard as we can,” she said. “Connetquot is a very good team and we know that their ball control is very good and they’re going to depend on us making mistakes so we’re going to work hard to eliminate the errors.”

Fernandes said that although he’s been coaching volleyball for years and made it to the county finals before, going back with these girls makes it feel like the first time.

“The girls hung together, they understood that if we executed our game plan we could be successful, and they did,” Fernandes said. “This is a very good volleyball team and if anything, our route to the finals has battle-tested us. I just can’t wait to see these kids in that room.”