No. 2 Kings Park beats No. 1 Westhampton to win Suffolk Class A girls volleyball crown
Kings Park celebrates after match point of the Suffolk Class A girls volleyball final at Suffolk CC on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015. Credit: Joseph D. Sullivan
Stephanie Cornwell is a floor general, and she played like one in the Suffolk Class A girls volleyball championship.
She led No. 2 Kings Park to a statement win in straight sets over No. 1 Westhampton at Brentwood's Suffolk Community College campus Thursday night. Kings Park lost to Westhampton earlier in the season.
"She's a natural leader on the volleyball court," coach Ed Manly said. "She's a student of the game; she knows the game very well. It's nice to have a third coach on the court."
Cornwell had 31 assists for Kings Park (16-2), which won its fifth straight Suffolk Class A title. Although many were of the athletic, diving variety, she said she plans most of her passes before the play develops. "I know who our strongest hitters are, so I focus on who to set," Cornwell said. "Before every play, I try to pick who to set."
Her awareness level is off the charts, evidenced by several kills she recorded on simple touch plays to the far corners of the opposite side. Lauren Kloos, who had 14 kills in the match, echoed Manly's praise.
"Her sets are amazing almost every single time," she said. "She always tells you what we're running. She leads the whole team."
Kings Park got better as the match progressed. It won the opening game, 25-23, behind clutch play from Jaclyn Wilton, who had 12 kills and 16 digs. Meagan Murphy, who had 25 digs, stopped several Westhampton attempts with diving stops across the floor.
Wilton, Kloos and Lauren Kehoe (16 kills, 11 digs) ran the show on the attack from there, leading Kings Park to a 25-20 win in the second and a 25-17 victory in the third.
The big hitters for Westhampton (17-2) were Sarena Choi, Camryn Bancroft and Arianna Brierton. They played well, but the balance and set-to-set improvement of Kings Parks proved too much to handle.
"We've just continued to get better exponentially during the course of the year," Manly said. "The team that lost to [Westhampton] in September, that team is a shell of who we are now."
