Westchester County Center hosted two Section 1 boys volleyball championships Thursday, Nov. 13. Yorktown and Clarkstown South came away as Section 1 champions.
Yorktown beats Croton/Briarcliff/Hen Hud for Section 1 small school title
WHITE PLAINS — They played like their seasons were on the line — bodies flying to make improbable digs, kills that bounded off the floor sometimes higher than a basketball hoop.
But they were not.
Second-seed Yorktown, which split with the top-seed Croton/Briarcliff/Hen Hud merged team during the regular season, pulled off a minor upset Thursday night at Westchester County Center, beating the Bear Cats, 25-13, 25-19, 21-25, 25-21.
With Section 1 allowed at at-large bid in both divisions, both teams will participate in state championship pool play Saturday, Nov. 22 at Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua, hoping to qualify for state semifinals, which will also be held there.
But the section championship was still that and some tears of disappointment were shed by the Bear Cats, who appeared at one point to be in pretty good position to force a game five before Yorktown put the game away.
“They’re all upset. They knew we could have won,” Bear Cats coach Lisa Rudner said, explaining her team had been guilty of playing defensively, rather than offensively.
“We’ve been working on that all season. Some days are better than others,” she added.
By the numbers
There’s little doubt it would have been a better day for the Huskers had Franklin Ringel stayed home.
A lanky 6-foot-6, the senior, who plays on the Huskers basketball team and hopes to play college basketball, had a huge game, despite this being his first season playing volleyball.
Yorktown broke open the first game early with Ringel and Justin Sek dominating at the net. Sek put away a couple of 50-50 balls and Ringel, using his height, had some key kills. Some were quick strikes off short Jack Brummer sets.
Yorktown’s Connor McGowan had a point-saving great dig on the final point of the game.
A great cross-court kill by Oscar Thoreson and a block by Anthony Davis helped put the Bear Cats up by a couple of points early in the second game.
Yorktown never relinquished the lead after Ringel put back a tricky, quick side set by the Bear Cats. That put Yorktown up 8-7 and while the Bear Cats had great moments, including when, during one long rally, Camilo Martinez-Amezaga made two fine saves before Thoreson buried a winner, they could get no more than close.
Sek ended the second game with a dramatic kill.
Yorktown was eying a sweep in the third game and went up 16-15 on a Sek dink.
But the Bear Cats went ahead soon after and scored the last two points of the game off a smart side set by Phoenix Hunt and a Juliann Chin hit.
In the decisive and spirited fourth game, Ringel smashed a ball into Davis’ face for a point and moments later, Davis buried a kill shot.
The Bear Cats looked like they might send the match to a fifth game when it went up 20-18, but Yorktown won seven of the next eight points.
Two of them came with the Bear Cats unable to return two McGowan serves.
Ringel scored the last three points of the match, the final one coming on a block.
The Bear Cats combined for 11 blocks for the match.
McKinley had 13 kills and Thoreson and Davis each had 10 kills for the Bear Cats.
Player of the game
He had a lot of help, but no one had a bigger game for the Huskers or was as big a difference-maker as Ringel, who described the beginning of his season, when he was first learning volleyball, as a “rough ride,” but credited fellow senior Sek with helping him learn how to play.
They said it
“We’ve built a strong team this year and the mental game really got us through the game this year,” Ringel said.
He credited coach TJ Pufahl with calling timeouts at the correct time to settle players down who were “getting in their own heads.”
“I’m so happy,” he said of taking the section championship.
Of his team’s prospects for states, Ringel said, “We’re going to work hard this week. Nothing is guaranteed but I’m hopeful we can win. We need to play a strong mental game and not get in our heads.”
Clarkstown South sweeps Scarsdale for Section 1 large school crown
WHITE PLAINS — It was a match that before the tournament began wouldn’t have been predicted — No. 4-seed Scarsdale vs. No. 3-seed Clarkstown South for the boys Section 1 large school volleyball championship.
But at Westchester County Center Thursday, despite Clarkstown South winning in straight sets, both teams very much looked like they belonged.
And due to the way the state tournament is structured, Section 1 is sending two large school teams to states this season, meaning both Clarkstown South, now 19-2, and 20-4 Scarsdale will play Saturday, Nov. 22 at Robert Wesleyan University in Rochester in pool play with the goal to make the semifinals and, of course, then the championship game.
By the numbers
Led by seniors Liam Cacioppo and Steven Mathews, the Vikings, who beat No. 2 Suffern in straight sets in the semifinals, took down the Raiders 25-18, 25-12 and 28-26.
Scarsdale took an early first-set lead but that quickly evaporated. It did the same in the second set and it wasn’t until the third set that it better resembled the team that upset No. 1 Arlington to reach the final.
Cacioppo’s stuff gave the Vikings a 7-3 first-set lead. A few minutes later, senior Tristan Fourgoux, who provided the bulk of the Raiders offense with both cross-court and down-the-line smashes, tied the score 9-9 with an off-speed cross-court hit.
But Clarkstown South, while not fully shaking Scarsdale, took control from there and, eventually, won four of the last five points for the set with Mathews scoring on a well-placed set to the back row, Fourgoux recording an ace, Mathews scoring on a great put-back and Fourgoux finishing things off with a spike off Scarsdale blockers.
After jumping out to a 3-0 lead, Scarsdale, plagued by unforced errors and beaten by blocks and kills, quickly let the second set get away from it.
Not that it needed it, but a little luck was on the Vikings’ side.
Moments after burying a big kill to raise the Clarkstown South lead to 20-7, Caciioppo’s serve rolled off the net and fell to the floor on Scarsdale’s side. A huge cross-court kill by Mathews off a fine set by Khai Nguyen followed. Then Scarsdale let a good serve receive fall to the floor.
The Raiders had a short run before the set ended, scoring four unanswered points but fell short by 13.
Scarsdale seemed poised to win a back-and-forth third set a couple of times, going up 24-23 on a Jacob Kashanian block, 25-24 after a Fourgoux kill and 26-25 after a Viking serve out of bounds.
But Clarkstown South had an answer every time in the way of a Cacioppo dink off blockers and two Mathews’ kills.
The Vikings wrapped up the set and match with Brody Sutherland’s block and a Mathews put-back.
Player of the game
Mathews and Cacioppo, who were absolute monsters at the net, shared top player honors.
“That’s their normal. They’re heavy hitters,” said Clarkstown South coach Heather Franco, who’s now in her 10th season heading the Vikings.
They said it
“Unforced errors are the reason we lost,” Scarsdale coach Josh Molina said.
He said he found no solace in the fact his team would still make the state tournament.
Franco, who said her team’s motto is, “We’re more family than team,” said the Vikings won following their one-point-at-a-time approach.
Mathews pointed to the Vikings’ ability to block as a difference-maker.
Cacioppo, a four-year player, who remarked his team had gotten off to a shaky start this fall but had rebounded after losing two games midseason, said, “The key to winning this game was trusting each other.”
“The most important thing is after every point we lost, we’d huddle up and tell each other, ‘We’ve got it,’ and that’s what kept us going,” Cacioppo said.
Clarkstown South split with Suffern during the regular season, losing the teams’ second meeting.
Mathews said the huddling after lost points changed things for his team, leading it to beat Suffern in the semifinals.
“That’s what brought us here today and that’s what helped us win the championship,” he said.
Nancy Haggerty covers sports for The Journal News/lohud.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Yorktown and Clarkstown South are boys volleyball champs, but all 4 teams going to states
Reporting by Nancy Haggerty, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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