VOORHEESVILLE — The Voorheesville girls’ volleyball team is trying to get over the hump this season.

The Lady Blackbirds want to beat those teams in the Colonial Council that have given them problems over the past couple of years.
"We’re hoping to win the Colonial Council and go far in sectionals," said senior Co-Captain Brigit Feeney.
"There are three teams that beat us every year," added Brittney Wineinger, the Birds’ other captain, "Ravena, Schalmont, and Cobleskill. We want to break into that three."

Voorheesville opened the season with a good showing in the Fonda-Fultonville Tournament, placing second after losing to Schalmont in the championship game. The Birds followed that with a tough five-set loss to Guilderland, a larger Class A school. The Birds will play in Class C this fall.
"I felt this was the first year that we could give them a great match," said Voorheesville Coach Sandy Vorse. "And we almost won. We are learning to go the distance. We just have to finish out the fifth game."

The Blackbirds trailed the Lady Dutch, two sets to one, but were impressive in the fourth set, winning 25-11, to even the match.

Senior Clare Gravelin’s great service of the ball, big hits by Feeney and Wineinger, and digs by Lauren Passarelli and Kathleen Hoyt contributed to the win.

The fifth game was a different story and showed the Birds still need to work on playing in the final set. Voorheesville had the fifth set tied at 9-9 but lost 10 straight service points to fall behind, 19-9, and couldn’t catch up.
"A lot of good things happened," Feeney said. "We are still getting used to playing different positions and used to new rotations and being next to new people. We did better than we have before against bigger schools and I’m happy with that."
"Working really hard"

Seniors, Hillary Goetz, Tara Joyce, Kerri Farley, Amanda DeZalia, Laura Gorgen, Abbey Schultz, and sophomores Kristen Lysenko and Alyssa Cave round out the team.
"We have two seniors that have been on the team for four years," Vorse said. "And we have three on the court full time. The two juniors bring a lot to the team."
"Brittney and I have been on varsity for four years," Feeney said. "We have a lot of seniors. We have nine, but we have a lot of people that it’s their first year on varsity. We all have different skill levels. I think our bench is strong. We can send people in and they’ll do great. They’re working for their chance to get in and play."
"The team is really close," Wineinger said. "We’re working really hard."

The tough early matches should help the Blackbirds during the season and prepare them for the Class C playoffs. They have already seen some of the teams they could face in the tournament.
"We’ll see some different teams in sectionals," Feeney said. "We saw a few of them in the [Fonda] tournament and we beat a few of them."
"We’re in one of the strongest leagues considering the size of the schools," Vorse said. "We’re playing some good volleyball teams."

The Blackbirds have set goals for the season.
"Our goal this year is to qualify for the sectionals and advance," Vorse said. "To do that we have to be .500 in the league."