John Jay Moves onto Semifinals with Win Over Tappan Zee

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On Monday November 4, John Jay hosted Tappan Zee in the quarterfinal round, and the goal of winning sectionals has some added juice this year. “We really want to win it for him and go all the way,” said Jaime Bartley-Cohen of Coach Rizzotti, who is retiring after the season. So a split after two games possibly signaled an unwanted early retirement but not for long.

John Jay rang up 25-14 and 25-17 wins to keep the coach on the payroll and dream big versus Ardsley on Thursday.

Off the bus, though, Tappan Zee might have wished they stayed in bed. Two kills by Bartley-Cohen, one for Hanna Martinsen, and an ace by Riley Buckingham paved the way for a 7-0 advantage for the top seed.

Olivia Casabona’s errant bump wasn’t no respite either and got Ilirijana Ahmetaj into the act. Two kills and Buckingham couldn’t miss how the big guns were already firing. “It’s so nice to see them get up and bang,” boasted the senior.

The same goes for seeing girls hitting the floor. First, Haley Haskins laid out for a deep ball and then Casabona refused to let a dink drop to keep the point alive. That left Martinsen to give back better than the Wolves got. The center hitter took the set, and seeing two go up, she dropped the softball. “Yeah, I like that,” she expressed the satisfaction of faking out the front line.

Good for a 12-2 score, the rest came easy. A 25-12 final and John Jay didn’t slow down in jumping out to a 9-4 lead in game two.

But a couple of diving saves and five straight aces gave the Dutchmen a 12-9 lead. So the Wolves went strong up the middle. A Hellen Dollar block stopped the run, and Julia Shepherd’s dink maintained the two point difference at 13-11.

Two Tappan Zee errors halved the lead, and John Jay regained the edge on a Bartley-Cohen kill and a sneaky second ball dink by Dollar. 17-16, Bartley-Cohen’s block added another, but the Dutchmen refused to relent. They tied the game at 18 and took a 23-21 lead. The teams then traded points until an ace gave the Tappan Zee a 25-22 victory.

1-1, John Jay quickly reengaged. A pair of Buckingham aces was good for a 3-0 lead, and a peak into the ace server’s trade secret. “It’s all about my toss and my contact,” she assured.

Still, Tappan Zee stayed close at 4-3, but the retort came back at the Dutchman twice as hard. Maria DeGaetano slipped a dink, and Ahmetaj added two kills to another ace at the Dollar store.

9-4, John Jay maintained the five point lead on a Shepherd block and increased with Bartley-Cohen changing speeds. A kill and a dink made it 14-8, but Tappan Zee cutting the lead in half only got the killers mad. Bartley-Cohen delivered to stop the run, Ahmetaj knocked four more and Casabona registered two aces, which lead the way for a 25-14 win.

On the other hand, Tappan Zee was not eager to end their season. Despite seven combined kills by Ahmetaj and Bartley-Cohen, the game stood tied at 11.

Enough being enough, Bartley-Cohen made herself heard and as usual had no hesitation calling for the ball. “I have a lot of confidence that I can put the ball down,” said the senior, and four kills opened a 20-11 lead.

The rest was playing out the string and acknowledging who put Bartley-Cohen in position to no longer need anyone to pull them. “He’s shaped the player that I am,” Bartley-Cohen praised her coach again.

Certainly not alone, the girls hope to return the favor at the end of the bracket and keep going from there.