Smithtown East falls in AA semifinal
Smithtown East's Delia Phillips with the overhead shot during the Class AA state semifinals against Penfield. (Nov. 19, 2011) Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
Entering its final match of the girls volleyball Class AA state semifinal pool play, Smithtown East needed to sweep defending state champion Baldwinsville to force a three-way tie in the standings and keep its hopes of advancing to Sunday's championship match alive.
Smithtown East led in the opening set, but Baldwinsville battled back, tied the match and went on to clinch the set 25-21, ending Smithtown East's chance of advancing. . The Bulls took the next set 25-13 to finish 3-3 in the round, but still finished third out of four teams Saturday afternoon at the Glens Falls Civic Center.
"We came out so strong and then at the end things just didn't go our way," senior Maggie Engellenner said of the team's opening set against Baldwinsville. "We played amazing and just to say that we came so close says a lot."
In state semifinal pool play matches, each team plays six sets, facing each of the other three teams once in a two-set match. A team's record reflects how many sets it won or lost in the entire round, with the top two teams advancing to the championship match. Baldwinsville and Penfield each finished 4-2 and will play for the Class AA title Sunday at noon.
Smithtown East (20-2) reached the state semifinals for the first time since the Smithtown school district split in 2005. Smithtown reached the state semifinals in 2000.
"[This] is an awesome milestone for our school and a great experience," coach George Alamia said. "It was an unbelievable run."
The Bulls opened pool play by dropping two sets to Penfield, 25-18, 25-22. Both Alamia and Engellenner said the team came out flat and perhaps was overwhelmed by the grand stage of the state championships. The team would respond in its next match by sweeping Suffern, 25-15, 25-16, before splitting its last two sets with Baldwinsville.
Engellenner, senior Delia Phillips and sophomore Dani Nizich were the team's leaders throughout the day. In the six sets, Phillips had 44 kills, Engellenner had 47 digs and Nizich added 63 assists.
" are a big reason why we're here and this weekend Dani Nizich was phenomenal," Alamia said. made our players buy in and made this journey that much better."
Alamia said the team entered the season with its sights on a Suffolk championship after losing in the county semifinals in each of the last three seasons. This year after winning League III, Smithtown East beat Lindenhurst to take the Suffolk championship and then topped Massapequa in the Long Island Championship to reach states. Engellenner said the team was proud of its accomplishments.
"We kept changing our goals throughout the season and we surpassed all of them," Engellenner said. "To be third in the state is amazing and to go out like this as a senior will be something we remember forever."
