West Hempstead Girls Volleyball Bests Island Trees, Knocked Out by Mineola

It has been a long, hectic couple of weeks for everyone in the Tri-State area as they recover from the damage done by Hurricane Sandy and the recent Nor'easter that dropped over 6 inches of snow and closed schools across Long Island. The sports teams at West Hempstead High School were no exception as the inclement weather affected playoff schedules and practices.

The girls varsity volleyball team's last full practice was on Oct. 26, so they went into Friday night's playoff game against Island Trees with a little bit of rust in their wheels.

"It's been a crazy few weeks to say the least," said Head Coach Suzanne Kenney. "We haven't had a full practice together since October and we just had a small team meeting on Tuesday that some of our girls who live in Island Park were not able to attend."

The Lady Rams got off to a good start though in the Conference BC playoff quarterfinals, knocking off a solid, 14-1 Island Trees team, 3-1. However, West Hempstead's playoff run came to an end Saturday when they were shut down by a tough Mineola team.

In the first game of the match against Island Trees, West Hempstead took a quick lead and never relinquished it, winning by a score of 25-16. The second game was more of the same as West Hempstead jumped out to a huge 16-6 lead on the strength of seniors Nicole Christenson and Joy Clark. Clark had a huge spike to cap off the 25-19 game win to give the Lady Rams a commanding 2-0 lead.

But Island Trees would not just roll over as star player Shamar Sanchez led her team on a come back to take the third game, 25-16. The Lady Bulldogs had built upon an early 16-10 lead and never let West Hempstead get back into the game.

It looked like the two teams would end up battling it out in a fifth and final game but West Hempstead's Taylor Chambers made sure that didn't happen. The middle blocker served to give West Hempstead a commanding 19-10 lead en route to a 25-15 game and match win.

"We played our game tonight," said Coach Kenney. "We had good hitters at net and our height helped us on the blocks up front."

West Hempstead also got help with the return of their main setter, Kara Lynch, who was in her first game back after a leg injury.

Click here to read about Saturday's semi final match between West Hempstead and Mineola.