Volleyball: New faces and a new era on the court for lady Wolves

Clockwise from top, John Jay coach Theresa Swertfager hopes to have reason to smile in her first year at the helm. Hellen Dollar is the lone returning starter from the Wolves’ championship team last fall. Maria DeGaetano returns as a defensive specialist for John Jay.( Jim MacLean photos)

By JIM MACLEAN

This was a perfect test, a chance to see where they stand against a state champion quality opponent for the John Jay varsity volleyball team before the real season begins.

A final tune-up with a scrimmage for the Wolves against Blind Brook, the defending Class C New York State champion, exactly what John Jay coach Theresa Swertfager was hoping to find as she gets ready for her first year at the helm coming home to her alma mater.

Of course, John Jay had a pretty successful season as well last fall, defending Section 1 Class A champions, but this is a new season with a lot of new faces and a new coach.  Swertfager knew Blind Brook would be a tough match up, but she also knows that her team is capable of competing once again for the title and she wants them to face the best competition possible to get ready. In the end it was Blind Brook prevailing 4-1, but the Wolves played strong and improved each game.

“We’re developing and that’s good, they’re state champions, and if we keep playing good teams we’ll keep developing,” Swertfager said after the scrimmage. “We’re seeing what we’ve got and what we need to work on. A lot of new faces out there, which is exciting.”

It helps to have senior Hellen Dollar returning as the lone starter back from that championship team last fall. Dollar runs the show as the setter just like she did last year for the Wolves, and she will play a big role all over the court this year.

Other than Dollar, everyone else is new to the starting lineup and many of them are new to the varsity with three freshmen and three sophomores on the roster.

Some of them were there last year for the championship run, and now it is their turn to take over and keep that winning tradition going on the court at John Jay. Senior Haley Hoskins played a lot on the court last year as a defensive specialist and she will take over as the starting libero this year, and junior Maria DeGaetano was also on the court last year in the back row. Those two will be called on as leaders this year.

In addition to Dollar and Hoskins, the other seniors on the roster are Meghan McHugh and Julia Sheperd. It is a young team with three sophomores and three freshmen on the varsity roster, including ninth graders Layla Grassi and Emily Fulton in the front row.

“Hellen is a dominant player setting and hitting,” Swertfager said of Dollar. “We have a great libero in Haley (Hoskins), DeGaetano is another returning defensive specialist, and Sivon Ohana has been dominant on the front row outside. We have a couple of freshmen that are playing in the middle and we kept three freshmen. We have a lot of good young athletes, which is great for our program.”

Overall, Swertfager is excited to see the talent level on the court for her young team, and she feels the veteran leadership will carry over from the experience of winning a title last year to keep the program going strong.

“That should carry over, we lost a lot of girls, but a lot of these girls were on that team that won a Section 1 championship,” admitted Swertfager. “We have some size, we’re young, we’re developing, but we’ll be competitive. It’s going to be a good year and we’re going to compete. We’re trying to create that culture, we’re playing to win and we’ll have fun doing it.”

John Jay was set to open the season Thursday, Sept. 4, at home against Croton-Harmon.