For the first time in almost three weeks, the Pearl River girls volleyball team returned home yesterday afternoon to play host to Nyack and won in straight sets 25-20, 25-9, 25-16.
Pearl River Coach Julie Crowe welcomed the victory, the Pirates' first in league play, which improved her team's record to 2-6. She had been concerned about her team's play entering the contest.
“We have played a lot of away games and I hope that we can pull it all together on our home court," Crowe said before the match. "It is a little heartbreaking, but we have come close. It has just not come together, we have to get more aggressive and learn from our mistakes.”
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She pointed to three players that have to contribute for the Lady Pirates to be successful:
- Setter/outside hitter Victoria Grix—“She has not only set up offensive plays but completes them on her own playing as our setter and hitter.”
- Middle hitter Annette Krysiewicz—“She is the middle hitter and also does will on defense leading the team in “digs” and keeping the ball alive.”
- Libero Marissa Verdicchio has stepped up in the key defensive role, a player who is able to stay in the back row at all times.
Against Nyack everything seemed to work as Pearl River jumped out
to sizable leads in each set, held off determined Lady Indian comebacks, and were never really challenged.
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“I am glad that all thirteen players had a chance to play," Crowe said. "It was nice to be back home and to see us executing more offensive plays with the team of Victoria (Grix) setting up our middle hitter Annette (Krysiewicz).”
Grix contributed nine digs and six assists, Krysiewicz totaled seven aces, five digs and five kills. As would be expected of a libero, Verdicchio led Pearl River with 20 digs. Kayla Clohessy had seven digs and five kills.
“I am really proud of our team. We really worked well together. I am very excited about the next game.”
“I think we had a lot of cooperation and good team work. We played very well,” Krysiewicz said.
Crowe focused on the signs of improvement heading into Thursday's match at Nanuet.
“They did extremely well and I am proud of what they all contributed," Crowe said. "We worked well as a team. We made fewer errors. That shows we are improving and working better as a unit.”
