Shelter Island girls volleyball team bows to Haldane

Despite a valiant effort by the Shelter Island girls in Tuesday night’s game against the Haldane Blue Devils, Haldane won the match at Pelham.

Fresh from its win over Pierson to take the Section II Championship just 24 hours earlier, Shelter Island ran into a brick wall.

There is a reason Haldane has been Section 1 champions 13 years running. They are good. Really good. The Blue Devils are confident and hard hitting, and feature very tough serving.

The drive up to Pelham on a comfy coach bus was fun, and we arrived in plenty of time. Unfortunately, no ball handling was allowed until 30 minutes before the match, so we passed the time doing some shoulder massages, light warm-ups and locker room talks. The team was relatively calm, with an edge of nervousness, as befits the first round of the state tournament.

Haldane started fast, with blistering serves and smart hitting. Despite SI’s determined attitude and defense, the ball found the floor.

The first and second sets were blurs, but by the third set SI started to be able to handle the fast serves and start to play “Shelter Island volleyball.” We were able to better implement our game plan, and several long rallies ensued. We were ahead early in the game, but a couple of missed serves and hitting errors was all it took for the Devils to take advantage and inch by to take the final set 25-20, and win the match.

The team circled up after the loss. The six emotional seniors felt it most — their final high school season had come to an end without fulfilling the dream of making it to the state final four. A tough loss, but they can look back with pride. Shelter Island volleyball hasn’t lost a league match since before they started playing the sport at the school. The team has been undefeated as league champs and County champs every year. Not too shabby.

As Coach Jim Theinert reflected, “Many sport teams enter a season having the goal of wanting to be competitive in every game. In this program, it is the norm to win the county championship. That’s pretty impressive.”

It’s been a season to remember. The road to states and the 2015 season has come to an end, but Shelter Island pride endures. Go Blue and Gray!