West Islip Girls Volleyball Playoff Run Ends

The West Islip Varsity girls volleyball team knew they had a tough task at hand when they entered the Lindenhurst High School gym on Tuesday night.

The Lions (11-2, 15-5) impressive season came to end, as they were swept by the top-ranked Bulldogs (11-0, 18-5) in the Suffolk Class AA semifinals.

"They're the No. 1 seed for a reason," said Lions head coach Jim Klimkoski. "They turn a play out of every pass, every dig, they keep on moving, they hustle. They're coached very well and played well tonight."

The Lions, who returned only one starter from 2009, were ranked No. 5 heading into the playoffs, but fell just short of reaching the finals, losing 25-15, 27-25 and 25-16.

"They came to play," said captain Erin Byrnes. "We came to play too, but we just got down on ourselves and couldn't pick it up."

The Lions, who are notorious for starting slow, were beaten handily in the first game. Lindenhurst jumped out to a rapid 8-2 lead, which was too much for the Lions to come back from.

After the decisive first-game victory, the Lions seemed to chalk their play up to their usual flat start and came out firing in the second.  West Islip converted their first six serves for points, en route to an 8-1 lead.

But, like Klimkoski said, there's a reason Lindenhurst is ranked No. 1.

"You know, we jump out to an eight-or-nine-point lead… a few passing errors, a few hitting errors, and [Lindenhurst] kept fighting," Klimkoski said. "They didn't give up, have to give them credit for that."

West Islip watched their early lead evaporate as the Bulldogs rallied back to tie the game at 20-20, eventually taking the lead.

After Lindenhurst tied the game, it went back-and-forth until Lindenhurst's Alyssa Marchino sent the ball over the net, landing in after the miscue by a couple of West Islip players, giving the Bulldogs the 27-25 come-from-behind victory.

"We always get leads and then we always get too comfortable playing," said Byrnes. "When we let them comeback, they usually end up winning."

Lindenhurst sealed West Islip's fate in the third game, in similar fashion to the first game.  The Bulldogs maintained at least a five-point lead for the entire game.

"After we lose two in a row it's hard to come back from that," said Byrnes, who only had five kills on 15 attempts.

Lindenhurst used a very strong net presence to thwart nearly every chance the Lions had at generating a consistent striking attack.

"They blocked the ball very well on the inside," Klimkoski said. "I told my centers that if they don't push the ball to the outside, they're going to trap our hitters and block them."

The Bulldogs' strong net game, which was led by Marchino, sophomore Rachel Ramirez and senior Liz Gorman, combined for 11 of Lindenhurst's 13 blocks.

"The three of them have been strong at the net all year," said Lindenhurst head coach Kellie Block. "That was a big key to the game."

"We practiced covering the blocks, but sometimes they just got a better block than we were expecting," said Lions' Marisa Ejups.

Aside from their net game, Lindenhurst's defense was also stellar, despite missing one of their starters, Jessica Rzempoluch, who was out with a sprained ankle.

"One of our seniors [Jenna Clemens] stepped in and did a real good job at picking up the slack," Block said.

Clemens had 11 digs and five kills, helping Lindenhurst in their efforts.

Although they fell one victory short of traveling to St. Joseph's College on Thursday to play in the Suffolk Class AA finals, this was an extremely successful season for the Lions.

"This was overall a really good season, we made it further than we have in a while," Ejups said. "I'm proud of us."

"I can't complain at all," Klimkoski said. "I went from having one returning starter, to going to the Suffolk County semifinals. We're happy about the season, just not happy about tonight."