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10/02/2016 12:00 AMIt’s been a season of adjustments for the East Haven volleyball team after the Yellowjackets graduated nearly their entire starting lineup from last year’s squad that won the Oronoque Division title and reached the Class M State Tournament semifinals. Aside from the changes in its lineup, East Haven moved from the Oronoque Division to the Housatonic, meaning there’s a new crop of rivals for Yellowjackets to face during the season. Through its first four divisional matches, East Haven sports a 2-2 record with wins over Lyman Hall and Cross, plus losses to Shelton and Amity.
“Like anything else, we have to adjust. We need to adjust to the talent that we’re playing,” said Head Coach Craig Brown of his new divisional opponents. “We went through all of them once and we need to make some adjustments to give ourselves a chance to win the division in the second half of the season.”
On Sept. 26, East Haven defeated Housatonic foe Cross 3-0 (25-15, 25-16, 26-24) to notch its fourth win of the season and its second in division action. Junior captain Kylie Schlottman led the charge with 11 kills, while junior Summer Onorato finished with seven kills in the win. The Easties were dominant from the service stripe, punching home 20 aces. Onorato had a team-high 14 digs, Schlottman added 10, and Isabella Ragaini totaled 15 assists.
Cross came to the Housatonic Division from the Oronoque with East Haven and so Coach Brown’s Yellowjackets knew what to expect from the Governors on the court.
“Wilbur Cross, the girls know they’re completive and athletic. As familiar as we are with them, they’re used to playing us twice a year, too, so they’re just as familiar with us and what we do,” Brown said. “Going in, we all had the same mindset. We need to beat them if we want a chance at the postseason.”
East Haven finished last week with back-to-back losses to Hand and Seymour. On Sept. 28, Hand topped the Yellowjackets 3-1 (25-11, 21-25, 25-19, 25-23). Schlottman had 10 kills for the Easties, Onorato finished with seven, and Julia SanGiovanni had five. Senior captain Amber Ciscone had a team-high 30 digs, Schlottman had 23, and Onorato finished with 18. Ragaini dished out 25 assists in the defeat.
The day after that, Seymour topped East Haven 3-2 (18-25, 25-16, 25-11, 18-25, 15-7). Schlottman scored on 15 kills, Onorato had 11, and Diana Kalman finished with seven. Ciscone collected 34 digs, while Onorato and Schlottman had 17 each. Ragaini added 33 assists for Coach Brown’s club, which dropped to 4-6 overall.
“It’s a growing period. We’re growing with every game, so I think they’ll be even more prepared and we’ll be in a better position to win because they’re getting more and more experience,” Brown said. “Our biggest strength is our continued desire to grow and learn. We’re a young team with only three seniors and we continue to get better. I hope we continue to improve, so we can win our division and make it back to the playoffs and make some noise in the Class M Tournament like we did last year.”
Coach Brown said that he’s seen the most growth from his team on defense through the first half of the season. Brown said his athletes always seem to be in the right position to give everyone the necessary lanes to convert a dig into some offense.
“Our defense is coming along nicely. East Haven historically needs to win with defense. Earlier, we were struggling with that transition with a lot of younger girls in the lineup, but we’ve been playing better on defense the last couple of games,” he said. “We’re hanging in there. You can see the improvement. In earlier games, we’d lose 3-0, but now we’re playing 3-1 or 3-2 with some of the top teams in the state from last year. Maybe in time we’ll improve enough to beat them.”
From the Sidelines
This year’s captains for the Yellowjackets are seniors Amber Ciscone and Samantha Miranda, along with junior Kylie Schlottman.
Schlottman leads East Haven with 98 kills so far this season and Amber Ciscone has a team-high 160 digs.
Three of East Haven’s four wins have come at home.