Season Preview: Croton-Harmon Volleyball

Last season Croton-Harmon lost to Pawling in the Section 1 Class C final after beating it the previous year in the championship round.

This year the Tigers are expected to make another deep run in the Class C tourney, if they can qualify after playing a tough-league slate.

Croton-Harmon is the only Class C school in the league with the rest of the teams being from classes AA, A and B.

“We are going to struggle but it’s only going to help playing those hard teams,” Croton-Harmon coach Robin Cooke said. “We are just going to try to win some of these tough games. If we get enough wins to qualify for the sectionals, we should be fine since we would be back in Class C during the playoffs, which is where we would be playing similar-sized schools.”

Helping lead the Tigers into that tough league schedule is senior setter Emily Groenendaal.

“She is always positive no matter what situation is going," Cooke said. "On the court, Emily is the most positive player I have ever seen. She never, ever stops playing, she never stops encouraging people.”

Skill wise, Groenendaal is someone who is always able to get to the ball.

“She is a good setter,” Cooke said. “She is left-handed which is a big plus for her. She can really do everything.”

That includes being a team leader, a role Groenendaal takes seriously.

“I have a very good attitude on the court so I find my favorite place is to calm the girls down,” Groenendaal said. “If we are losing I just try to keep up the energy on the team. That is the most important thing to me because if we have fun then we play better.”

Junior middle hitter Ashley Latimer is the Tigers other returning starter from last season’s Section 1 Class C finalist squad.

“Ashley has grown a lot, she is really tall,” Cooke said. “She can serve, she can hit, she just loves to play the game.”

Latimer comes from a pretty athletic family as her mom also played for Cooke as did both her aunts and they were all all-league.

“It’s nice, it’s my third set of mother-daughters, I had two before her and her mom,” Cooke said. “It’s really cool. The parents always hope they can play like them but they are really good at not pushing their kids to play volleyball, they let them decide whether or not to pursue the sport.”

Two other key players for the Tigers this fall will be seniors, outside hitter Annika Van Ells and libero Julia Miller.

“I had so many seniors last year that it was really hard for them to play,” Cooke said. They are appreciative of having that opportunity this year to play and continue the tradition of Croton-Harmon volleyball.”

Croton-Harmon started the season with road games, a 3-0 loss at Harrison and a 3-2 loss to Byram Hills last week.

“I expect this season to be a challenging one,” Groenendaal said. “We lost a lot of really good seniors but the chemistry on this team is good, all the girls get along really well. I think although it’s going to be really hard, I think we will win enough games to get to sectionals. I think we will rise to the occasion.”