Westhampton Beach Girls Volleyball Tops Host Harborfields to Advance to County Semis

Over the past several years, the Westhampton Beach girls volleyball team has clashed with some of the top teams Suffolk County has had to offer, from fellow East End school East Hampton to Harborfields, Kings Park and Sayville. On Tuesday, the Hurricanes were matched up to play in a historically tough gym at Harborfields in the opening round of the Suffolk County Class A playoffs, but the they rose to the challenge.

Westhampton Beach defeated the host Tornadoes, 3-2, to advance to the county semifinals for the first time since 2019, the last time the team made the playoffs. The ’Canes will play at top-seed Sayville this Friday, October 28, at 6 p.m. after the undefeated Golden Flashes dispatched No. 8 Kings Park in three sets also on Tuesday.

After the big victory, the players talked about how much confidence they had coming into the match, which is what ultimately helped them prevail in what was a back-and-forth match throughout.

“We've had the past week to practice and everyday we’ve been showing our improvement and everything that we’re learning we’re putting on to the court,” senior Reilly Mahon said.

“I think we just put everything out on the court, to be honest,” fellow senior Lauren Goss added. “I knew we were so ready. We were practicing so hard in practice.

“Coming in here today, the confidence was just through the roof. I thought we had it.”

That confidence didn’t wane whatsoever when Harborfields took the first set, 25-20. The ’Canes came right back to take the second set, 25-16, setting up the always key third set, which was a real slugfest. The Tornadoes outlasted the ’Canes, 29-27, and with it a lot of the momentum heading in the fourth set.

In that fourth set, Westhampton Beach led by as many as five points midway through, but Harborfields came back and at one point outscored the ’Canes, 9-1, to take an 18-15 lead. But behind the strong serving of senior Sydney Anastasia and Haley Waszkelewicz, who were strong from the line throughout the match, the ’Canes stormed right back to take a 21-20 lead, thanks to a point by sophomore Karly Pascale. Then, with the set on the line, Goss found empty space on the court to nail down the win, 25-23.

In the fifth and final deciding set, Westhampton Beach held a slim 8-7 lead when the two teams switched courts and it maintained that momentum, eventually clinching the set and match off a Harborfields error to win 15-12 and with it the overall victory.

“Watching the ball hit the floor, I knew exactly who I’d be running to,” Mahon said. “Everybody was behind you. I felt so confident with everyone today. Made the win a lot better.

“We haven't been in playoffs since our freshman year [2019], so every year not even getting to playoffs we've been looking forward to the next year,” she added. “I’m just so proud of us.”

Interim head coach Eric Ferrante, filling in for Jackie Reed who is on maternity leave, has helped steer the ship for the ’Canes, who went 11-3 in League VI this season, 12-4 overall. Ferrante, the Eastport-South Manor graduate who competed on the highly successful boys volleyball teams there, said the team was prepared.

“We knew that they were going to play really aggressive defense and that they were going to pick a lot up,” he explained of Harborfields. “We knew they had a couple of weapons that were going to challenge us, which they absolutely did, especially that one middle that they have, really put us to work. But we spent the whole time how they were going to challenge us offensively to try and stay alive and it really came alive. We covered a lot in defense, very rarely got beat on little chip shots, and were able to really find ways to score opportunities.”

After dropping the first set, Ferrante explained that he switched to a 5-1 rotation, with five hitters and one setter. That one setter was Goss, who Ferrante gave a lot of credit to for leading the team’s offense after the change.

“She was really able to keep everybody calm and the keep the offense very consistent,” he said of Goss. “And then defensively, our libero Christie [Stevkovski] was able to really stay strong and pull off some really big digs that were able to keep us in the game. And then from the serving line, everyone stepped up from serving. Sydney and Haley, both really strong servers. Sydney is super consistent. She’s been reliable all season in service and has been able to pull off some big comebacks for us absolutely.”

Ferrante continued to give a lot of credit to the players for being able to adapt to him this season and be successful while doing so. Both he and Goss and Mahon admitted it won’t be easy going into Sayville which has only lost one set all season, and that was to Eastport-South Manor.

“I definitely have my own coaching style and they adapted very quickly and went to work on all the systems that I introduced and were really adaptive,” he said. “Everything that we talked about they've engaged, they've communicated how they want their season to be and have really pushed hard to get to this point.”