SARATOGA GIRLS SWEPT BY NISKY ON 70’S NIGHT
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> The Niskayuna girls volleyball team spoiled Saratoga Springs who planned a really groovy night Thursday, sweeping the Blue Streaks, 25-11, 25-15 and 25-19.
Donning their best tie-dye warm-ups, colorful headbands, some plastic glow necklaces and coaches wearing wigs and colored sunglasses on the sidelines for 70s Night, it turned out that the Silver Warriors knew how to ‘Do the Hustle,’ taking the Suburban Council contest.
“The girls came up with it,” Saratoga Springs varsity coach Sarah Tarrantino said. “We have a big tournament Saturday, Power of Pink, where all the proceeds go to the SideOut Foundation, it’s for all Stage 4 breast cancer patients and it’s for clinical trials for them.
“We’ve been trying to do all the fundraising we can for that, this was a way to try to entice some of their classmates to come and to get people here to draw that attention to it.”
With the festive garb placed on the sidelines, Niskayuna was able to take advantage of unforced errors by the Blue Streaks, struggling with its return game throughout the first two sets before staging a rally in the third game.
“That third set was a lot of young girls, we have a lot of sophomores on our team, a lot of juniors, the seniors are holding their own,” Tarrantino said. “They’re doing a really great job too. I think we have a good group of girls out there.”
This is the first year at the helm of the varsity squad, coaching the Saratoga modified squad previously.
“The seniors this year are my first modified group, which is a really cool thing to have,” Tarrantino said. “I’ve had a
lot of the girls and coached them a lot when they were younger.”
Even with a past relationship with her seniors, she isn’t putting the weight of the season on her veterans.
“I ask the same of all the girls, they’re all a part of the team, they’re all together,” Tarrantino said. “I expect the same from the sophomores as I do from the seniors.”
Blue Streak sophomore setter Emmy Krum dished out 15 assists with sophomore Kaylie McKissick coming up with four kills and three digs. Senior Summer Schumacher put down four kills and added two blocks on the night.
“We have some great hitters, we don’t have a lot of the height that a lot teams have,” Tarrantino said. “We’re doing our best to do what we can do on defense and we’re working on that offense too, looking at the rest of this season and the future.”