By Lori Brown
FALLSBURG — October 29, 2010 — The seniors on the Fallsburg Lady Comets volleyball team were recognized on Monday afternoon prior to the start of their last home match.
Those two Lady Comet seniors, Lauren Elliott and Courtney Huebsch, were presented with flowers and also gave flowers to their families. Fallsburg Athletic Director Tim Bult also presented flowers to the Lady Comet modified, junior varsity and varsity volleyball coaches.
Unfortunately for Elliott, Huebsch and their teammates, the visiting Tuxedo Lady Tornadoes prevailed in the Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Division IV match. Tuxedo (11-7, 11-6 Div. IV) won all three games by the respective scores of 25-20, 25-7 and 25-21.
Fallsburg (1-17, 1-16 Div. IV) was able to stay close in two of the games, but Tuxedo dominated the second game with solid serving.
Tuxedo took an early lead in game 1. But Fallsburg’s Shanice Mack helped her team tie the score at 8-8.
Tuxedo’s Michelle Cloutier served up three points to help her team take a 12-9 lead. Fallsburg’s Alexis McCarthy answered with three points.
Moments later, Kali Leu had three points as the Lady Tornadoes won the game.
The Lady Comets struggled in game 2. Kelly Ross earned eight points to help Tuxedo take a 13-4 lead. Tuxedo’s Alex Sabarese served four points to help her team win the game, 25-7.
In game 3, Isabel Mejia scored six points to give the Lady Comets a 10-4 lead.
Later, Alex Sabarese served five points to tie the score at 13-13. Ross served four points to allow Tuxedo to win the game, 25-21.
“Our outside hitter, Caitlyn Ratsep did awesome tonight hitting,” Tuxedo Coach Michelle Micklos said. “She also did well serving. She recorded five aces, had six kills, six service points and three digs.”
Ross finished the match with 19 service points and four aces.
“This is our last week and everyone’s pretty tired,” Fallsburg Coach Andrea Millas said. “We normally serve better. There are two extremely important parts of the game – serving and serve receive – and we struggled with both of them tonight.
“I am happy we stayed in the third game,” she added. “I am happy with the performance in the first game too. During the second game, they lost momentum and fire.”
Elliott, Huebsch and Mejia led the Lady Comets in the match. Elliott recorded five digs, three service points, two aces and one kill. Huebsch registered four digs, three service points and three assists. Mejia had seven service points and three aces.
“We have a young team and will be losing two seniors,” Millas said. “Shanice Mack is a junior and she’ll be a great returning player next year. Most of our players have been playing together for many years.”