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10/09/2017 12:00 AMThe East Haven volleyball squad received a little bit of a wake-up call when it lost two of three contests last week. The Yellowjackets took a 3-1 home loss to Lauralton Hall, dropped a 3-2 decision at Branford, and then bounced back to grab a 3-2 victory in Shelton.
Even with these two defeats, the Easties still own a solid record of 10-3 on the season. With his team having already locked up berths in the SCC and State tournaments, Head Coach Craig Brown is looking forward to what the Yellowjackets can accomplish throughout the rest of 2017.
“I’m proud of this team. They pushed early to get to the postseason and, since they clinched, they have not looked back,” Coach Brown said. “They continue to look forward at what is going to be happening in the postseason.”
East Haven started off last week with a home match against Lauralton Hall and lost by a 3-1 (26-24, 25-22, 19-25, 25-23) final against the Crusaders on Oct. 2. Earlier in the year, East Haven went into Lauralton and came away with a 3-0 sweep.
“They made adjustments. They have good coaches, and they made the necessary adjustments to pull out the win,” said Brown of Lauralton Hall. “They made adjustments; now we need to make adjustments. We need to move the ball better and get our girls in better sports to be better in the second half of the year.”
Coach Brown said the Yellowjackets were unable able to finish off points against Lauralton Hall like they have been throughout the season.
“We just didn’t close,” he said. “We have to get back to playing more fundamental. We had a few errors that hurt us.”
Senior Summer Onorato led the Easties with 10 kills and eight digs in the defeat. As a team, the Yellowjackets had 17 aces with senior Kylie Schlottman and junior Diana Kalman finishing with five each. Kalman also ended the match with eight kills and five digs. Junior Alannah Doheny had a team-high 19 digs, while fellow juniors Megan Roberts and Cameron Cordaway had 14 and 10, respectively. Sophomore Isabella Ragaini finished the match with 27 assists and 11 digs.
In another rematch from earlier in the year, East Haven was edged 3-2 (21-25, 25-20, 14-25, 25-20, 15-13) by Branford on Oct. 4. East Haven had previously blanked Branford 3-0 in its second match of the season.
“When it’s East Haven and Branford, no matter who is the better team, those games are going to be tight,” Coach Brown said. “Last year, when they finished 15-5, we beat them once. This year, we started 9-1 and they beat us. These games are always going to be competitive.”
The Yellowjackets totaled 45 kills against Branford as Onorato led the charge with 15. Kalman contributed 10 kills, plus senior Julia SanGiovanni and freshman Victoria Heaphy each had eight. SanGiovanni recorded seven of East Haven’s 21 aces, while Onorato led the team with 17 digs. Roberts added 12 digs, and Ragaini handed out 33 assists.
Coach Brown used the Branford loss as a learning experience for East Haven, which came back by notching a 3-2 (25-20, 16-25, 25-16, 17-25, 15-9) victory over Shelton on Oct. 6 to complete a season sweep of the Gaels.
“We have to get back to what we’re doing,” Brown said. “We shuffled some people to make things work and hope to get on another run.”
Onorato had 13 kills against Shelton, while SanGiovanni added 10. Roberts had a team-high 16 digs with Heaphy adding 13 and Ragaini finishing with 12 to go with her 27 assists.
Looking ahead, East Haven wraps up the regular season with four of its final seven games at home, including contests against Amity, Woodland, and Hale-Ray. Coach Brown makes it a point to have perennial powers such as those clubs, as well as Haddam-Killingworth and Seymour, on the Yellowjackets’ schedule in order to help prepare them for postseason action.
“We want them on our schedule,” Brown said. “We played great against H-K, and we beat Seymour, who won Class M last year. We want to bring that mentality to our games against Amity, Hale-Ray, and Woodland.”
Prior to last week, East Haven’s victories this year came against Haddam-Killingworth (3-0), Branford (3-0), Lauralton Hall (3-0), Shelton (3-0), Sacred Heart Academy (3-0), Lyman Hall (3-0), Wilbur Cross (3-0), Hand (3-0), and Seymour (3-0).