Lady Cougars Notch Strong Volleyball Win

The Kennedy High School Lady Cougars volleyball squad performed true to form Thursday against visiting South Side, pushing back a persistent young opposing team and pulling off a three game sweep of their conference opponents.

Capitalizing on the talents of team captain Stephanie Bauman (two-time all-state) and Keri Stalzer in the frontcourt and the serving talents of Samantha Sagendorph and Taylor Krug, the Kennedy girls took the match by scores of 25-13, 25-18 and 25-21.

South Side, relying on a youth movement that includes sophomores Emma Parris and Allison Glass, and junior Megan Lonergan, offered moments of quality play, but were unable to overcome the teamwork and talent of the Cougars in their first match-up of the year.

The Cougars went into the conference match with a measure of confidence in their game, having won the Mineola Tournament last weekend.

"That's the second time in a row we've won that tournament, against 1o other teams," Kennedy coach Allen Ma said.

The confidence showed.

The Kennedy girls established a tempo for the afternoon, coming back from a quick start by South Side on the strength of strong service runs by Sagendorph and Krug, and Bauman's finesse and power at the net, to turn 0-3 and 3-6 disadvantages into a lead of 9-6 which they would not relinquish for the rest of the first game.

Grace Healey had the best service run for South Side during the first game, notching three straight early on. South Side also exhibited a measure of success with hits from behind the attack line, but it was not enough to counter the power of Cougars' Bauman and Stalzer on the front line, and a nice run from Kennedy server Heather Hulkower gave Kennedy a one game to nil advantage.

Game two was more of the same, despite South Side keeping up during the early going. Building off strong serves from Healey and Emily Essig, the Cyclones had things knotted against Kennedy at 3-3, 4-4, 5-5 and 6-6 before Stalzer and Jamie Demmett combined for a dramatic double block changed the momentum.

After that Kennedy pulled away with a run of eight straight service points from Stalzer, including three clear aces and an impressive kill at the net by Hulkower along the way. From 15-6, the Cougars were able to maintain a lead of 9-10 points through most of the rest of the way, holding off a late run by South Side on the back of Chelsea Portenoy's serves to take game two.

Game three was the clincher, as the Cougars showed increased confidence in front and backcourt, against a Cyclones team that–to its credit–never yielded in tenacity. A service turn of eight points in a row by Sagendorph plus numerous winning cut shots and cross court shots for points at the net were sufficient to give Kennedy the sweep.

"I think we communicated well today and kept our energy up," said Bauman, captain of the Lady Cougars. "The tournament win in Mineola was good, but we have to keep getting better."

"It was a good match against a solid opponent, a conference opponent," added coach Ma. "If we continue to be active we can achieve some of our future goals as a team."

Next up for the Lady Cougars is visiting West Hempstead next Thursday at 4:30 p.m.