Winning a habit for South Side

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The South Side girls’ volleyball team has picked up where it left off from last season and remains a top contender for both the Nassau and Long Island Class A titles.

Through Sept. 29, the defending Nassau Class A-champion Lady Cyclones have won all six regular-season matches in addition to two tournaments to take an early command of the already-strong Conference 1A standings. They have lost just three sets during that span and were tied during a match just once, splitting the first two sessions at Lynbrook on Sept. 13.

But coach Cheryl Scalice cautioned that the match results haven’t come as easy as they appear on paper.

“We don’t feel like we’re killing people,” she said. “We’re playing well and we’re working hard to win every match that we can.”

South Side bested Calhoun in the semifinals and North Shore in the finals of the first tournament at Herricks on Sept. 15 and then Carey and Kennedy at last Saturday’s event at Baldwin. Senior outside hitter Alexa Fingelton took home tournament MVP honors at Herricks.

“We use these tournaments for endurance purposes and to balance the lineup,” Scalice said. “We play every player equally throughout the entire day. It’s definitely a full team effort and the intensity and desire to have a successful season is 15 wide.”

That experience has resulted in the Lady Cyclones having had a balanced attack on both sides of the net. Four of the five major categories in Nassau County are led by a South Side player entering last Saturday’s tournament, with others sitting among the top 10.

Junior setter Ryann Hoffman was pacing all players with 106 assists, one of just two competitors in the county in triple digits, and 28 aces. Sophomore Faith LaMacchia is also approaching the century mark in assists with 97 helpers.

Senior Carolina LaMacchia holds a commanding lead in digs with 166 and four of her teammates occupy the 5-8 slots, including Hoffman (99), Fingelton (95), LaMacchia (91) and sophomore Sophia Jackson (76). Junior Katelyn Tollefsen is second in kills with 62 and forms a strong 1-2 tandem with outside hitter Fingelton (54).

Despite her 5-foot-9 frame, middle blocker Maggie Basile was pacing the county with 20 blocks, including a season-high seven in a four-set win at Mineola on Sept. 21. Fellow senior Colleen Farrell sat fourth in that category with 14, one better than junior teammate Jaden Garelle.

With seven games remaining in the regular season, Scalice is hoping to fine tune her team’s attack and defense in hopes of a second straight berth in the Long Island title game, where it fell in straight sets to Kings Park last November.

“We’d like to make our attack even stronger and continue to have defense be the biggest strength,” she said. “We’re setting more immediate goals, one thing at a time. We want to win the conference championship first and then we want to win our county title and then ultimately, give a much better showing at the Long Island championships.”