PB wins another Class AA volleyball title

By Mike Zummo
Posted 11/9/22

Sienna Hunter and Courtney Meyer now have five Section Class AA championships between them during their years on the Pine Bush volleyball team.

For two of the Bushmen’s four seniors, the …

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PB wins another Class AA volleyball title

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Sienna Hunter and Courtney Meyer now have five Section Class AA championships between them during their years on the Pine Bush volleyball team.

For two of the Bushmen’s four seniors, the feeling doesn’t get old, especially since this is their last one.

The Bushmen held off a late Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders’ rally in the second set, and then blew them away in the third to win the program’s fifth straight Section Class AA championship, 3-0, on Sunday at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh.

“This is just excitement,” Meyer said. “I can’t even put it into words. We wanted this so badly from late August. We’ve worked so hard to get to this point. We were a little nervous, but it’s good to be nervous, and I’m just so overwhelmed and so happy.”

It wasn’t as easy as the match’s 3-0 score would indicate, and the key was holding off a late rally by the Crusaders.

With the first set already in hand – 25-17 – they were looking to put the second set away with a 23-16 lead.

Then, Monroe-Woodbury senior Sofia Salazar went to the service line with her team trailing, 23-17, two points away from defeat.

After a hitting error by Anabella Almeida, Pine Bush coach Melyssa Amelio called a timeout.

“We told them you are never comfortable. You have to play point for point. You’ve played many games and just have faith in each other and do what we’ve been doing since August.”

The first timeout didn’t help as Monroe-Woodbury’s Payton Grove had two kills around a Pine Bush hitting error to close the cap to 23-21.

Another timeout.

“I wasn’t worried and I wasn’t nervous,” Hunter said. “I was expecting that to happen. Every team has their ups and downs. So, I didn’t feel nervous at all. I knew we would come back. We’re a very strong team. Everybody on this team loves each other.”

Salazar’s ace closed the gap to one point.

Two rallies later, the Bushmen ended the Crusaders’ comeback attempt with a 25-23 win in the second set, to take a commanding 2-0 lead, putting the Crusaders on the ropes.

Hunter felt it.

“I think we all really wanted to pull it together,” she said.

The Crusaders’ body language sagged in the third, and Pine Bush opened up a 10-point lead, and when Monroe-Woodbury’s Ashley Freda’s serve went out of bounds, the Bushmen’s nervous energy let loose a raucous celebration.

It was also the fifth section championship since Amelio became varsity coach.

“They’re all special, but they have a lot of heart,” she said. “We split with them during the season. That was our only loss in our conference, but it’s really about them coming together. They’re a family. Most of them have started when they were 8 or 9 years old and have watched their siblings.”

The Bushmen will move on to Wednesday’s New York State Public High School Class AA subregional to face Section 4 champion at Corning High School. A win Wednesday will send them to John Jay-Cross River High School at 4 p.m. Friday against Mamaroneck.

“We are beyond excited,” Meyer said. “I can’t even put it into words because we all pushed and pushed and pushed. And we said when we left states last year, we wanted to get there again. Our performance last year at states wasn’t the best, but we knew that we had the chance to get to states this year, and that’s what we’re going for.”