Cougars Volleyball Has No Trouble With Hewlett

Now that it's the end of the year, the Kennedy volleyball team is more focused than ever.

After dropping their second match of the season on Monday to West Hempstead in five sets, the Cougars knew they needed to regroup.

Since then, they've come back and defeated Lawrence in three sets on Wednesday, and continued to get back on track by sweeping Hewlett yesterday afternoon in three sets.

The Cougars got the win, but weren't totally satisfied with their overall performance on the court.

"Today I think we played below our normal level," Jesse Forman said. "We tend to play down to lower level teams, and it's something we've been working on in practice. Even though we came away with the victory we weren't 100 percent satisfied with the win."

Brian O'Gorman had a big day for the Cougars with seven kills and eight blocks. Matt Lawner also contributed three aces.

Kennedy (8-2) wasted no time in game one, jumping to an early 6-0 lead behind slick serving by Jacob Tabman. A kill from Ben Hirschler expanded the lead to 12-5. Hewlett (1-8) kept it close, and after an ace by Idan Sasson they only trailed 13-9.

But back-to-back kills from O'Gorman and a kill by Andrew Hirsch helped put the game away for the Cougars as they won 25-19.

"We beat them up pretty good," Tabman said. "We didn't play our top game, but we managed to scramble and keep the ball in play. That's what we need to do when we're not playing our best."

In game two, Brendan Mills recorded back-to-back kills to put the Cougars up 7-3. An ace from Lawner and another kill by Mills made it 16-10.

After Jon Meshnick put away back-to-back kills, Ryan Pastuch served an ace to give the Cougars the win in relative ease, 25-14.

"We've been working hard in practice on blocking and our transition game," Lawner said. "The transition didn't come, but the blocking did improve today. We got the balls down and it was a good win."

In the final game, the Cougars grabbed an early 4-0 lead behind a kill by Justin Scarpa and a block by Ben Canarick. Kills by O'Gorman and Hirsch expanded the lead to 15-7, and an ace by Forman made it 20-9.

Meshnick put away another kill, and the Cougars would win the game and the match 25-13 off of a perfect bump-set-spike combination by Dylan Simonson, Forman and O'Gorman.

It wasn't the best performance that the Cougars have displayed this year, but it was still a three set victory to keep Kennedy in second place in the conference standings.

"We want to start beating up on teams a little bit," Forman said. "Our emphasis has been hitting and transition, and those are the two things we kind of lacked today. A win's a win so we'll take it, but next time we have to come out harder."

The Cougars next game is a huge one.  On Tuesday, they host first place Floral Park, who defeated Kennedy last month in three sets. It is a must-win game for the Cougars if they plan ending the season atop the standings.