Sports
Lynbrook Girls Volleyball Season Underway Behind New Coach
The Owls have completed their first week of play undefeated.
What a difference a year makes for the Lynbrook girls volleyball team.
In 2010, the Lady Owls struggled to find the winning column and, despite winning a first-round playoff game over Valley Stream South, they were looking for vast improvement come this fall.
Under the guidance of first-year head coach Vanessa Jeremenko, Lynbrook has already surpassed their win total from last season in just the first week of competition. The girls defeated Valley Stream South in straight sets, followed by a sweep of Bethpage and, most recently, a tough 3-2 win over Plainedge - both on the road.
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“The girls are actually really good because they play well together and are functioning well as a team,” Jeremenko said. “We have a really good shot at doing well this year."
Lynbrook graduated five seniors from last year's team, namely center Taylor Garrett. Looking to step up as her replacement will be senior captain Kasey Keller, who will be featured in the middle of the Owls’ set-up.
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“We have a really young team, but a lot of us have been together for almost three years coming up, so we have been pretty good together,” Keller said. “We’ve been working on defense and hitting. We just need to cover blocks a little better now.”
Senior Caitlyn Christy and sophomore Nicole Milillo will look to control the offense as main setter and starting libero, respectively. Senior Nicolette Franco and junior Sidney Sullivan will provide a bulk of the offense as the teams’ top two outside hitters this season.
"We’ve been finding holes in the other teams’ defense. Defensively, we have been doing pretty well too," Jeremenko added.
With new realignments for volleyball this season, Lynbrook will have a look at some new teams on their schedule. Top competition in Conference A-I for the Owls figures to be Plainedge, Levittown Division, Hewlett, New Hyde Park and Calhoun.
Lynbrook will match-up with Levittown on the road on Monday, Sept. 19 at 4:30 p.m. in an attempt to keep their early success going.
