North girls volleyball falters in tournament final
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Amherst's Grace Mariani gets her arms up for a block during the Amherst Tournament on Saturday at Amherst High School. Amherst lost to Williamsville North in a semifinal match. Photo by Joe Eberle Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com

In a season where many matches have not gone Williamsville North's way, this past Saturday's Amherst Tournament at Amherst High School provided the Lady Spartans with some positives.

North went 5-1 in pool play and beat host team Amherst, 28-26, 23-25, 15-11 in the semifinals before losing to West Seneca East, 11-25, 25-20, 17-25, in the finals.

"It was a good day for us," said North coach Tom Sproull, whose team has only three regular season wins. "We have struggled this season, especially in our league matches so this tournament was very positive because we got to play kids who normally wouldn't see much playing time."

In pool play, North beat Lew-Port and Kenmore East twice and split games with Depew.

Sproull his team trailed in the third game against West Seneca East by as many as seven points.

"We had a good rally at the end of the game but too many mental errors made it hard for us to come back," said Sproull.

Sproull said the entire team played well during the tournament but lauded the play of junior middle hitter Emilee Slick and outside hitters, senior Jen Pawlak and freshman Corrin Genovese.

North needed a good performance at the tournament as they have struggled in ECIC Division I. The Lady Spartans' only two league wins have come over West Seneca West, its most recent win coming on Oct. 5 by scores of 14-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-15. North is 2-9 in league play, 3-11 overall.

North closes out the regular season with home matches against Jamestown and Amherst on Wednesday and Friday, respectively, and a non-leaguer at Williamsville East on Monday, Oct. 22. North lost to Jamestown 19-25, 12-25, 26-28 in the team's first meeting on Sept. 27.

Amherst Central

Although the Lady Tigers fell to North in the semifinals, coach Jen Loretto felt her team played its best volleyball all season.

"The whole day, the girls were working together," said Loretto.

Amherst went 3-3 in pool play, defeating Cleveland Hill twice, split games with Holy Angels and lost twice to West Seneca East. Loretto said both games against West Seneca East were close.

Loretto attributes her team's semifinal loss to fatigue.

"They were more enthusiastic in the third game," said Loretto. "I felt my team got tired and weren't moving around as much as North was."

Loretto lauded the play of senior outside hitter Amy Simon and setters Casey Martin and Emily Molzen and junior libero Katie Szatkowski.

Overall, Loretto thought the tournament generated a lot of competition from all teams.

"Nobody blew anyone out of the water," said Loretto. "The semifinals and finals matches were evenly matched."

Loretto said Amherst is 5-4 in ECIC Division III and if they win its last three league matches (Pioneer, Starpoint, Cheektowaga), they will be in a tie for third place, giving them a better seeding for sectionals.

"We have to be mentally and physically ready to go," said Loretto.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com