Lily Coan to Morgan Reese a winning formula for Sayville girls volleyball vs. Half Hollow Hills West
Lily Coan of Sayville looks to set the ball during a Suffolk girls volleyball match on Monday, September 18, 2023 in Dix Hills. Credit: Dawn McCormick
There was no doubt about what the Sayville girls volleyball team wanted to do in the decisive fifth set. Find Lily Coan. Then have Coan find Morgan Reese. It was a recipe for success throughout the final set leading to a Golden Flashes victory.
Sayville defeated host Half Hollow Hills West, 22-25, 26-24, 25-21, 18-25, 15-8, in Suffolk League V girls volleyball on Monday night. Reese had six of her 31 kills in the fifth set and Coan had nine of her 45 assists in the final set.
“Once we got on a roll, I think it was pretty hard to stop us because we both get very fired up in the game,” Reese said. “It was kind of like, ‘Give me the ball and we are going to score, we’re not losing.’ And that chemistry definitely helped and that doesn’t only happen in volleyball. It comes from off the court.”
All of Reese’s kills in the fifth set came from Coan assists, including the 14th point. Reese had an ace on the final point to secure the win in a rematch of last year’s Suffolk Class A final, which Sayville won in three sets.
“We knew we were going to have a tough match coming in, so in the fifth set we said, ‘We’re not losing this game,” Reese said. “We didn’t come here to lose. We came together as a team and played our hearts out and we came out with the win.”
Sayville improves to 4-0. Half Hollow Hills West drops to 3-1 but the sister tandem of Mary Wolcott and Morgan Wolcott played stellar to nearly avenge last year’s county final loss.
Coan assisted on 60% of Sayville’s points in the final set. But she didn’t put pressure on herself to be perfect every play.
“I think in the end, it’s not about the perfect pass,” Coan said. “It’s about how I and my teammates can better each ball to get a kill. It’s not so much about being perfect, it’s how we can adjust to each play.”
After dropping the first set, Sayville rallied from a 20-10 deficit in the second set to win, 26-24. Makenzie Muscarello had three aces during the second-set comeback.
“They lit a fire inside,” coach Debra Urso said. “They knew they had it, they knew they weren’t going to accept the loss. They knew they had a tough team coming at them but they knew they were going to stop them.”
