Category Archives: High School Player

Sally Maher

Posted on

maher

Sally began playing volleyball at North Haven High School in 1978 for Coach Marge Dolan.  She had great enthusiasm and exceptional athletic ability and she worked hard to learn this new sport.  Her hard work paid off. Sally and her teammates won back to back state championships in 1979 and 1980.  As a junior she was selected to the All-Housatonic and All-State teams, and she repeated this accomplishment her senior year.  She also received numerous team awards.  Sally was also an outstanding basketball and softball player in high school.

After graduation Sally attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and she continued her volleyball career playing for Coach Elaine Sortino.  In 1984 her team won the ECAC Championship.  Sally was captain her junior and senior years and was team MVP her senior year.  Sally decided to share her knowledge and talents by becoming a coach.  In 1988 she coached JV volleyball at North Haven.  The next year she took over the head coaching position at Lyman Hall which she held until 1999.  She has worked at several volleyball camps and she continues to play on the CT Fossil Team.  Sally is a physical education teacher at North Haven High School.

Patty Doolittle Giannattasio

Posted on

dooltittle

Patty began her volleyball career in 1974 as a freshman at Foran High School, coached by Edna Fraser. It was the first season that volleyball was played in the Fall. During her four years at Foran, her team finished fourth, third, second and won the state tournament. She lettered during her sophomore, junior and senior years and also captained the team her senior year. She was selected MVP her junior and senior years. In 1978 Patty received the Foran Athletic Assoc. Award, the Connecticut Scholar Athlete award and the Keystone Scholar Athlete Award.  She received an athletic scholarship to the University of Rhode Island, where she captained the team her Junior and senior years. She graduated with distinction with a BA in psychology.

Patty has coached volleyball at Jonathon Law High School and Fitch High School.  She initiated the volleyball program at Mitchell College in ’93 and has also coached at the US Coast Guard Academy.

Eva Esposito

Posted on

ESPOSITO

Eva started her volleyball career at Branford High School in her sophomore year. She earned a starting position the following year. In 1987 and ’88 she was selected to the All-Housatonic Volleyball Team and was selected as Branford’s MVP.  In 1988, the team was Class M runner-up and Eva garnered Class M All-State honors.  She led her team in kills, blocks and passing average. She was an honor roll student and was listed in the Who’s Who Among High School Students in 1989. She later attended the University of Hartford on a full basketball scholarship.

Eva presently teaches physical education at Eli Whitney Technical School and is head volleyball coach at East Haven High School.

Krista Blomquist Hall

Posted on

bloomquist

Krista started playing volleyball at a very young age. She was taught by her father Chet Blomquist who played collegiate volleyball at Springfield College. Her first organized team experience began in 1980 as a sophomore, when she tried out for the volleyball team at Branford High School. During her junior and senior seasons, the team, coached by Toni Cartisano, competed in the Class M state tournament and won the title both times.

Krista was voted all-league her junior and senior years and first team all-state her senior year. Upon graduation, Krista studied at the University of Connecticut where she played basketball. Krista continued volleyball after college when she began playing beach volleyball while living in south Florida. After moving to southern California in 1993, she played professionally on the Pro Bach Volleyball Tour.  In 1997 and 1998 Krista ranked 5th in the United States and in 1998 she was ranked 20th in the world.  She served as a player representative board member for USAV and was a member of the WPVA Board of Directors.  She is married to Stephen Hall and has a two-year old daughter, Kendra.

Lisa DeGioia Miller

Posted on

Lisa began her volleyball career at Sheehan High School in Wallingford in 1983 where she was a varsity starter for 3 years. She played outside hitter and averaged 13 kills and 9 blocks per game. In 1985 she co-captained the team, was selected the team’s MVP and garnered first team All-State honors for Class M. Lisa was also selected as a CHSCA Scholar Athlete.

Upon graduation, Lisa furthered her education at Utica College where she earned a basketball scholarship. Now residing in Wallingford with her husband Dave, Lisa is assistant volleyball coach at Sheehan High School and is a volunteer youth volleyball coach for the town of Wallingford. She has just completed her Master’s Degree in Education and will be teaching high school English next fall.

Nell-Ayn Aloi Lynch

Posted on

nell

Nell-Ayn made her mark on Connecticut scholastic volleyball while at Amity Regional High School. She began in 1983 and earned her first varsity letter in 1984.

She was selected a team captain in 1986 and her team captured the Class L state titles in 1983, ’85 and ’86.  She was selected to the CIAC All-State team in ’85 and ’86.  Other honors she received while at Amity included the Amity Athlete of the Month in 1985 and the New Haven Register Athlete of the Week in 1986.

She was awarded a full athletic scholarship for volleyball at the University of Connecticut where she started all four years. She was selected the Big East co-player of the in in 1988 and Nell-Ayn was elected co-captain of the UConn team in 1990.

Nel-Ayn has coached with Debbie Chin at her “No. 1 Total Volleyball Camp”. She returned to Amity in 1992 to assist head volleyball coach Paul Thees. While working with Paul, the team won the ’94 and ’95 Class L state titles. She then moved on to become head coach of the Newtown High School volleyball team in ’96. Her team won the Class L state championship that year.

 

Newtown Bee: Nell-Ayn (Aloi) Lynch, a social studies teacher at the Newtown Middle School, will be inducted

Christine Kenyon O’Connor

Posted on

oconnor

Christine started her volleyball career at Farmington High School where she played from 1965 to 1968. Her team won state championships in 1966, 1967 and 1968. They were undefeated in regional format during those seasons.

After graduation from Farmington High, Christine went on to Ursinas College and then Central Connecticut State University where she competed on the volleyball team and graduated with a BS in Physical Education.

She coached volleyball at Farmington High School from 1974-79 and ’81, accumulating a record of 80-37. Her teams were four time Northwest Conference champions and they won the Class S state title in 1979.

Christine was the 1978 Connecticut High School Volleyball Coach of the Year.

She is presently the physical education coordinator at Irving Robbins Middle School.

 

Lynn Spagnesi

Posted on

spagnesi

Lynn began her volleyball career at Brien McMahon High School where she played from 1969072.  she was team captain her senior year and her teams were undefeated during her junior and senior seasons. in 1972, they placed 3rd in the state tournament. during her high school career, she also was a member of the field hockey, basketball, track and field, badminton and softball teams.

Lynn continued playing volleyball in college when she went on to SCSU wand was a spiker for Louise Albrecht. She competed on the varsity squad from 1972-1976. The team won first place in the regional tournament in 1976 and qualified for the national tournament.

She received Outstanding College Athletes of America award in 1975. She was listed in the Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities in 1975.

After college Lynn continued to compete playing USVBA for the Connecticut Clippers and the New Haven Dippers for 1977-81. Her teams took first place in the USVBA regional championship in 1977, 79 and 81. She competed in the USVBA national tournament, held in Hilo Hawaii in 1977, representing the Eastern Zone. It was there she played against Olympians Flo Hyman and Debbie Green.

She was a member of the Greater New Haven board of volleyball officials from 1973-77. She also officiated basketball and was an ASA softball umpire.

Lynn also competed in AAU track and field, ASA softball, playing for the Raybestos Brakettes and was assistant women’s basketball coach at SCSU in 1977.

 

The Hour: BMHS hoop stars among Old Timers honorees

Bonnie Jean Kenny

Posted on

2010Kenney

(no high school data available)

Bonnie moved on to the University of Tennessee in 1981 where she captained the Lady Vol’s nationally ranked volleyball team. That team enjoyed much success with three appearances in the NCAA tournament, two Southeastern Conference titles and two SEC runner up titles. Bonnie herself was named to the Southeastern Conference all-tournament team in 1982.

Bonnie also excelled academically while at Tennessee.  She was named an Academic All-American in 1984 and remained on the Dean’s list for seven academic quarters.

Upon graduation from the University of Tennessee, bonnie was named head volleyball coach at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. She continued there until 1993 when she took on the position as head coach at the University of Massachusetts where she continues to coach at present.

Form 1980 until the present time, Bonnie has worked as instructor, clinician and director for numerous volleyball camps.

She is a content contributor in both the AVCA Handbook and Championship Volleyball Drills Vol I & II.

Alesia Vaccari

Posted on

Alesia

Alesia attended The Gilbert School in Winsted, where her team won the 2000 Class S Championship and were finalists in 2001. She was awarded Most Valuable Player in the 2000 tourney and All-State in 2000 and 2001. She was also named CT Player of the Year by the Hartford Courant in 2001. She then enrolled and graduated from Springfield College where she was setter for four years.

During her time running the office at Springfield, they won two NEWMAC Championships and played in two NCAA Regional Finals. She received many individual honors, including three All-Region honors, two honorable mention All-American honors, and was named NEWMAC Player of the Year in 2004. She continues to hold the all-time assist record at Springfield College with 5,196. Coach Joel Dearing stated upon her graduation that even with all of her accolades she would best be remembered for her “love of the game of volleyball.”

Alesia went on to share that passion as an assistant coach at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY where she was part of the Golden Knights’ 2010 Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year, helping the program in its first-ever  NCAA tournament berth. She then took the head coaching position at Simmons College in Boston, where she posted a 50-49 career record with the Sharks, reaching the Great Northeast Athletic Conference semifinals in each of her three seasons. Alesia was named the GNAC Coach of the Year in her first season at Simmons, when she led the program to a 20-10 record. In 2012, she was honored by the American Volleyball Coaches Assoc. Thirty Under Thirty Award. In 2014, Alesia was hired as head women’s volleyball coach at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA.