Rye Neck Volleyball's Epic Season Ends in Sectional Finals

The goal of every high school team in Westchester-Rockland-Putnam counties is to “make sectionals.” Some teams have higher aspirations but usually Goal #1 is to play in the Section 1 Finals of their sport—the Super Bowl of greater Westchester County.

For the Girls Volleyball team of Class C Rye Neck, making sectionals was A goal. But THE goal was to win the Section 1 title and advance to the state tournament—something no volleyball team has ever done at Rye Neck HS (or Mamaroneck HS). First-year Head Coach Allison Reynolds had her team acknowledge the opportunity early in the season and not shy away from it—win Sectionals no matter who stood in the way!

Yet, as the saying goes, there can be only one. And it was not Rye Neck.

On Sunday November 3rd, the Panthers entered the massive gym at Pace University to take on powerhouse Valhalla in the Class C title match. Despite racking up a memorable 17-3 record and having swept their semifinal opponent, Rye Neck was a distinct underdog as Valhalla was the defending Class C champion and happened to sport 3 all-state players and college commits. But the Panthers entered the match with a heavy dose of experience themselves as 6 players were on the team in 2017 when that RN squad also advanced to the Section Finals.

Rye Neck was going to have to play an aggressive match and take risks—relying on this opponent to make errors wouldn’t work. The Panthers needed to win points outright and play with major energy.

Why was the match held at Pace? Because you need a lot of seats for the crowd that showed up. Little Rye Neck turned out in force to show support for their squad. And Valhalla doubled or tripled those numbers with an even bigger turnout. After the hype intros, pump-up music, and National Anthem to amp up the players and crowd, it was time to ball. For those who have never attended a volleyball Section Final, imagine a wild college basketball game-- the gym was electric.

Set #1 saw Valhalla quickly turn to their tall and talented middle hitter committee to West Point, Jasmine Grant. Already tall, she bounced off the floor and smacked a clean kill to get the game going. The Valhalla crowd roared as Rye Neck took an early blow. There was zero doubtValhalla had a team and talent no one at Rye Neck had faced in their playing careers. But the Panthers started to flash some skills of their own, with a variety of players winning points and showing off the plays that got them this far. RN senior setter Grace West kept getting the ball to spots for hitters Kyera Hutt and Alexa Guedez to kill. Both teams were flying around the court. Rye Neck was here to play. Tied at 17-17, the game was a battle. But that is when Valhalla ran off a few serves in a row, with Rye Neck getting tight in the back row. Valhalla surged ahead and took the first set 25-19. How would they respond in the next set?

The 2nd set had more of the same as the teams traded blows. Valhalla made an early push to get up 11-4, showing their consistency and skills at multiple positions. Things didn't look good for RN. But RN senior captain JuJu Spencer ripped off a series of serves including multiple aces to make it a tight game and get the Rye Neck faithful to roar. The set see-sawed back-and-forth but, again, with the match tight at 16-14, Valhalla used a powerful server to frustrate RN into errors. And again Valhalla surged at the end of the set to take it 25-17.

As the teams switched sides before set #3, there was a definite gloom in the air on the RN side. Down 0-2 to a team that wasn’t showing signs of weakness was clearly on their minds. Any hopes of Valhalla being off had been dashed. The Valhalla side was rocking while the Rye Neck side was much quieter. As the 3rd set started, Valhalla jumped out to a quick lead as RN looked a bit shaken. The Panthers kept going to their rock solid triple play (JuJu-Grace-Alexa) but Valhalla seemed to be blocking and intimidating RN at the net each point. Rye Neck's kill attempts lessened and Valhalla took advantage. With no answer to dig out Valhalla’s fast kills hitting the corners, Rye Neck lost the final set 25-15.

Thus ended Rye Neck’s storied 2019 season. As the team held the runners-up award during the post-game ceremony, the girls had to stand silently by as Valhalla partied and celebrated before their fans as they were announced as the Section 1 champions.

There are no regrets for a team that wins its League, goes 17-4 on the season, sweeps the Rye Tournament, breaks several school records and makes it to the Sectional title game against an incredibly strong team. There are tears and hugs and bowed heads. But there are no regrets.