With the Spackenkill High School volleyball team knotted at two games apiece against undefeated Franklin D. Roosevelt on Thursday, Cassi Diamond was looking for determination from her Spartans.
Spackenkill topped visiting Roosevelt 25-22, 18-25, 25-20, 22-25, 25-17 to improve to 12-1 overall and 10-0 in
Sarah Hof (13 assists, eight kills) and Shannon Kelly (20 kills, two blocks) led the Presidents (10-1).
Poughkeepsie Journal - published Oct 16, 2013
Franklin D. Roosevelt 3, Millbrook 1 — Shannon Kelly totaled 14 kills to lead visiting Roosevelt (13-1) to a 23-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-14 triumph on the Blazers’ Senior Day late Tuesday.
Olana Costa had 20 assists in the win, and Sabrina Volino had six kills.
Poughkeepsie Journal - published Oct. 23, 2013
Roosevelt (15-1) topped Rhinebeck 25-17, 25-22, 25-16 on Tuesday, with Shannon Kelly collecting 12 kills and Sarah Hof adding 12 aces.
Poughkeepsie Journal - published Nov. 2, 2013
Second-seeded Franklin D. Roosevelt advanced to Sunday's Section 9 Class A final with a 25-23, 20-25, 25-15, 16-25, 25-21 win over third-seeded Saugerties. Sarah Hof had three aces, 17 kills and 15 assists for Roosevelt. Alyssa Dam added seven kills, six blocks and one ace. Shannon Kelly had 19 kills, three aces, four blocks and an assist. Sabrina Volino had five kills. "The girls did an amazing job not getting down on themselves when we were behind in points and they rallied back to win the match," Roosevelt coach Samantha Lowe said. "I, along with my team, am very excited for the match on Sunday. We are coming off a very successful season and are looking forward to the game against Cornwall. I have no doubt that it will be an excellent match."
Roosevelt faces top-seeded Cornwall at 4 p.m. on Sunday at SUNY New Paltz.
Poughkeepsie Journal - published Nov. 4, 2013
NEW PALTZ — Sam Lowe had an honest take on Sunday’s Section 9 Class A volleyball championship match.
“It took us a while to warm up,” the first-year coach of Franklin D. Roosevelt said with a smile after watching a game-and-a-half before Hyde Park’s Presidents took their first lead of the day.
Despite Cornwall’s 25-11, 27-29, 25-20, 25-20, defeat of Roosevelt that gave the Dragons the sectional title, Lowe said she couldn’t have been prouder of the effort the Presidents gave — from their season opener to this final match of the season.
“I’m just ecstatic to have an excellent season in my first year,” said the Presidents’ coach. “They worked their butts off. From Day One, they knew this was the goal: They wanted to go to MHALs (the Mid-Hudson Athletic League tournament), and they wanted to go to sectionals.”
Lowe said Sunday’s appearance was Roosevelt’s first sectional championship berth in “a very, very long time,” and the Presidents wanted to make this opportunity count.
“From the beginning, we had to start strong,” Lowe said. “We had to prove ourselves in our regular game play and then keep going.”
Sarah Hof (nine kills, three aces, two blocks, two assists) paced the Presidents, who ended the year 15-3. Shannon Kelly added 15 kills, two assists and a block; Sabrina Volino added five kills and a block; and Bri LaMonica recorded 13 assists.
Roosevelt fell behind 14-5 early in the first game. From there, Cornwall won eight of the next 10 points to pull away, winning the game by 14 points, matching its largest cushion to that point.
“That first game was a warmup game. We can all admit that,” Lowe said. “It wasn’t pretty, but they took from that and they decided they wouldn’t play down.”
Down by as many as five points midway through the second game, the Presidents rallied to take their first lead of the day, 24-23, only to watch the Dragons tie the game on the next point. Cornwall then took a pair of one-point leads — first 25-24, then 26-25 — before Roosevelt regained the advantage, 27-26.
After another knotted score, this time at 27-27, Roosevelt won the next two points, evening the match at a game apiece when Cornwall hit the ball into the net to give the Presidents the decisive point.
The squads were deadlocked seven times to open the third game — everything from 1-1 to 7-7 and every tie in between — with Roosevelt claiming six of the one-point leads that followed each deadlock. Cornwall, though, extended to an 11-7 lead with five straight points.
An errant Cornwall serve that landed past the baseline brought Roosevelt to within 14-12, and the Presidents would eventually get to within a point, 19-18. From there, though, Cornwall scored six of the next eight points to prevail.
Facing the prospect of their season ending, and seemingly playing inspired, the Presidents opened a 13-6 lead to start the fourth game, capitalizing on both their own strong play and the Dragons’ miscues.
Off a Cornwall timeout, however, the Dragons used its strong net play from earlier in the mach to score the next 10 points to regain the lead, 16-13, and never look back.
“It’s rally scoring. It’s one point. You can give up one point; you just need to take back the next one,” Lowe said. “In that last game, I think they just doubted their ability to take it.”