By Rob Potter
JEFFERSONVILLE — September 5, 2003 – A new era in Sullivan West Central School athletics began Wednesday afternoon in the 1994 gym at the district’s Jeffersonville-Youngsville campus.
For the first time in the school district’s history, the SW Lady Bulldog varsity volleyball team took to the floor for a match. In the past two school years, SW had only modified and junior varsity girls’ volleyball teams.
But the school now has a team on the varsity level as well.
Unfortunately for the Lady Bulldogs, their inaugural match was a loss. Visiting Goshen defeated SW in three straight games, 25-6, 25-17 and 25-13, in the non-league match.
Behind the strong serving of junior Allison Heaney, who recorded 13 service points in the match, Goshen (1-0) stormed out to leads of 15-1 and 17-2 in the first game.
The Lady Gladiators then grabbed early 7-0 and 17-10 leads in the second game en route to the 25-17 win.
As the match progressed, however, the Lady Bulldogs seemed to get more comfortable on the court. With SW’s Colleen Metzinger serving early in the third game, a Goshen player hit the ball out-of-bounds to knot the score at 2-2.
SW (0-1) then scored a point on Metzinger’s next serve to take a 3-2 lead.
But Goshen responded to take a 15-7 advantage midway through the game.
SW pulled within 17-12 later in the game, but that was as close as the Lady Bulldogs would get in the game.
Leading Goshen to the win were Heaney, Krystle Rienzo, who had 16 service points, six aces and two kills, and Maureen Golden, who recorded seven service points.
Metzinger finished the match with three blocks, two service points and two kills. Sabrina Reimer added four service points for the Lady Bulldogs and Christina Lavinski had three blocks, two service points and two kills.
“I was impressed; for a school that’s never had a varsity volleyball team before I thought they did a very good job,” Goshen Coach Dominique Meyers said of the SW performance.
Of course, Meyers and her squad were pleased to begin the season with a ‘W.’
“I’m just happy with the way my girls played,” she said. “The ball didn’t hit the floor too often and the players made their three hits to get the ball back across the net.”
SW Coach Jen Warner noted that her team was “very nervous” before the match. She added that of the seven players on the Lady Bulldog varsity roster, two players are totally new to the sport of volleyball, one player has one year of experience, three have two years of experience and one has three years of experience.
“We’re working on serving and getting our three hits when the ball comes to our side of the net,” Warner said. “Those are the main things right now.”
Naturally, she is looking for some improvement as the season moves along.
“Now that we’ve had our first match, the girls have a better idea of what to expect,” Warner said. “They’ve seen the kind of spiking and serving the opposing teams have.”