Unheralded volleyball squad quickly joins area's best

Goshen — Something slightly magical occurred this year in the gym at Goshen High School. For the first time in years, if ever, the Goshen Girls Volleyball Team became a force to be reckoned with throughout the Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association and beyond. The story actually began last year, with the arrival of new coach Melissa Lazaro, coaching her first varsity volleyball team and a team made up of nine juniors and a single senior. With much hard work, that team finished the year with a divisional record of 10 wins and 6 losses, and earned their first invitation to the Section 9 championship tournament in a number of years. This year, Coach Lazaro and the team, now made up of those same nine juniors (now seniors) and a sophomore addition, would exceed all expectations. It didn’t start off well as they lost four of their first five matches, but then something changed. They began to play with purpose. They began to play with passion. They began to play as team. Rattling off a series of victories, they climbed in the division standings and as their record improved more and more spectators began to come to their games. Playing two more games than the year before, they ended the regular season with an overall record of 12 wins and 6 losses, with a divisional record of 11 wins and 5 losses. Qualifying for the Class A sectional tournament for the second year in a row, they drew the lowest seed and would need to beat the second and third seeded teams to reach the finals, which they would have to do as the visiting team. Moving up another sophomore from the junior varsity team to help out, they traveled to play third seeded Saugerties High School on Oct. 30 and prevailed in a hard fought contest, winning three of four games. On Nov. 1, they traveled to second seeded and divisional rival Monticello High School, to play a team that had won last years divisional title and had not been beaten by a Goshen squad in a number of years. Once again, Goshen battled on, defeating the Monties in five games and winning the right to face the top seeded, undefeated and defending Section 9 Class A champion, Cornwall High School. Goshen traveled to SUNY-New Paltz on Nov. 5 to play in the sectional finals. Although they would not win this time, they battled the heavy favorites, winning the first game in a double tiebreaker before eventually falling to the Dragons. Despite the loss, Coach Lazaro and the team--seniors Kerri Gannon, Sarah Swanson, Ariel Hammond, Francesca Albanese, Michelle DeNisco, Brittany Balfour, Kathryn Barry, Concetta D’ Alessio and Elise Esposito; and sophomores Kierstan Elletsen and Katie MacDonald--have a lot to be proud of. In the last two years of their high school volleyball careers, the nine seniors compiled a divisional record of 21 wins and 11 losses, an overall record of 24 wins and 14 losses, two sectional tournament berths, a sectional final appearance and four nominees to the Orange County All-Star Volleyball Team.