South Defeats North in Boys Volleyball Semifinals

Clarkstown South won a decisive victory over Clarkstown North in the boys volleyball semifinals to advance to the finals against Suffern.

In this charged post-season game, the hometown rivals played their hearts out, but South came out hard and finished hard. After taking a 2-1 lead, it was South that would push on through to secure a spot in the finals.

South's Head Coach Shelley Dall Harrigan pointed out the deciding factor, saying, "It was the way my team started off going up 2-0, and then after losing the third set, they didn't lose their enthusiasm and were just determined to win and to not go to five games."

The Vikings hit the ground running, as they blew through the first set to a 25-10 victory.  The Vikings rode the momentum to this decisive win, helped along by excellent blocking and powerful spiking.

The second set went to the Vikings as well, though it nearly was the Rams for the taking.  The two teams were neck and neck throughout the set.  The Rams maintained the lead through much of it, even pulling away early 13-8.  Yet each time, the Vikings fought their way back and, after being down 21-18, they closed out strong with a seven point run to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

Despite the Vikings' daunting lead in the match, the Rams came out fired up and played hard to take the third set 27-25.  The final score was emblematic of the entire set, as each team gave it their all to keep their scores within one throughout the set.  After the Rams pulled ahead by 23-20 nearing the end of the set, the Vikings fought their way back to push it to 25-25.  The Rams finished strong, however, to put the match at 2-1.

The Vikings came out intensely in the fourth set to take a 6-0 lead.  Though the Rams fought their way back to make it close through much of the set, the Vikings held onto the lead.  They eventually pulled away again at the end to win the set 25-17 and the match 3-1, thus securing their spot in the finals.

"I think we played hard, but we put ourselves into a tough position being down a couple," said North's Head Coach Kerry Sullivan.  "It was too hard to fight out of that hole."

Leading the Vikings to this important win were seniors Chris Ferrara and Eddie Oswald.  Ferrara had an excellent day of it with 46 assists, 4 aces, and 12 digs.  Oswald had a dominant offensive performance and matched Ferrara in his solid defensive performance, with 34 kills and 12 digs.

"I was just hungry for the win, as a senior, I really wanted to go to Sectionals," said Oswald of his performance leading to his first trip to the finals.

South will go onto face Suffern in the finals.  Harrigan was confident in her team, just so long as they played to their potential, saying, "Hopefully they will bring the best version of themselves, it's our only hope of survival there because Suffern has such a strong team this year."