Baldock helps Morich Center girls rally in volleyball to retain Suffolk Class B crown

Center Moriches’ hopes of repeating as county champions seemed all but extinguished as he dropped three points in the fourth set. But Erin Baldock wasn’t allowed to finish her senior season.

No. 1 center Morish returned to defeat No. 3 Southampton 25-18, 18-25, 23-25, 25-22, 25-7 in the Suffolk Class B championship Wednesday night at Hauppauge High School.

Baldock finished with 27 kills, Carly Coonan had 10 kills and Roselyn Barthuren had 18 kills and 14 assists.

The Red Devils jumped out to a 5-2 lead after Coonan’s three kills in the fifth set. Southampton leveled the score at 7–7 after a kill from Bailey Brown, but center Moris scored the next eight points to seize the deciding set, taking the final points with successive kills from Baldock.

“I felt like I needed to be a leader, I’m one of the guys who’s been here before,” Baldock said.

“I knew what it was like to be down there, but I also knew what would happen when we got back.”

Southampton dominated the second set, jumping out to a 7–0 lead as Brown had two kills during the run. Center Moriches pulled three points back to make it 11-8, but Southampton responded with four points in a row to regain control. Brown had four of the seven kills in the set.

“We knew we needed to improve our communication,” Barturen said. “We did much better later.”

Baldock again showed strong hitting as Center Moriches took a 20-16 lead in the third set. Southampton scored five of the next six points to level the set at 21–21, and with Dunn’s set point, Nieto hit an ace to take the set.

“We knew we had to keep pushing, we knew it was our game,” Baldock said. “We just had to play our game and we knew what the result would be.”

Southampton led 15–12 in the fourth set after two aces from Beatrice Paris. This time center Moriches flipped the script, getting three kills from Baldock and two from Bianca Butta to take a 16-15 lead and ultimately take the set.

“It’s been like that all season, we’ve had several players with five sets,” coach Nancy Morrow said.

“Sometimes it feels like we quit the gym, but we always come back and I’m really proud of these girls.”

Center Moriches will face Class B champion Nassau in the Long Island Class B Championship on Friday, November 15th at 7:00 pm at Wantagh High School.

Christopher Mathias covers high school sports for Newsday after spending time in sports facilities and operations at St. John’s and in the sports information department at CUNY York.