Year after year, League VII in girls volleyball featured John Glenn and everyone else. At the top of that second tier of teams behind the mighty Knights was so often Mount Sinai, a team that routinely finish second in the standings behind Glenn.

Finally, there’s some hope.

The Knights bumped up to League VI this year, leaving the remaining teams in VII salivating at the chance to claim a league title while the narrow window exists.

The Knights may be gone for now, but as the Mustangs learned Tuesday afternoon, it doesn’t mean the league title will be handed to them.

Mount Sinai raced out to a 25-17 victory in the first game against Bayport-Blue Point, a team the Mustangs have so often battled against in tight matches, before coming up short in the next three to fall 3-1. The Phantoms, who lost on their home court in a five-game match to the Mustangs last year in the Class B playoffs, rattled off wins of 25-16, 25-19 and 25-21 to hand Mount Sinai its first loss of the season.

“We made more mistakes than they did toward the end,” said Mount Sinai coach Andy Matthews. “The first game we played clean, we didn’t miss any serves our passes were good. The second game we missed some passes, missed some serves.”

The Mustangs (2-1) split with Bayport last year in the regular season, winning the first match and then losing the second. That gave Bayport the home court advantage when the teams met in the playoffs, despite identical league records.

If the Mustangs end up in a similar situation this year and can beat Bayport (1-1) the second time around, they’ll be in position to host a playoff match if the teams were tied.

That still remains a long ways away and plenty of other teams will have their say in the league. Shoreham-Wading River replaced Glenn in League VII and Hampton Bays and Babylon are also strong.

The last time Mount Sinai won a league title came back in the late ’90s, Matthews said.

“Since then Glenn’s been winning all the leagues,” he said.

Mount Sinai has reached the county final in Class B four consecutive years. If the Mustangs get that far again, they’ll still have to face Glenn, Matthews said. While the Knights bumped up a league, their classification did not change.

The Mustangs feature a veteran team with nine seniors, but many are new to playing varsity. Mount Sinai lost several starters from last year who had multiple years of varsity experience, so it’s been a bit of a work in progress early in the season to develop some of the chemistry on the court. Many of the seniors even played on junior varsity last season, Matthews said.

Junior Caleigh Dolese is in her fourth year on the varsity and plays a big role in all areas on the court. She got the Mustangs off to a quick start with her strong serve as the Mustangs jumped ahead 5-1 to open the first game.

Matthews said they like to get Dolese the ball as much as they can.

“We had Caleigh outside and we should set her every time,” he said. “Keep setting her until either they stop her or she screws up a lot.”

The Phantoms got out to a big lead in the second game and the Mustangs could never catch up. In Game 3 the teams went back and forth and were tied at 15 when a service error for Mount Sinai sparked a 6-1 run for the Phantoms.

Bayport middle hitter Arielle DiCocco presented problems for the Mustangs all match. The Mustangs couldn’t generate any block on her when she unleashed big hits. It also opened her chances for some soft dunks.

The teams traded points again throughout most of the fourth game. Senior Jordan Fiore, the team’s libero who also started last year, delivered consecutive aces to put the Mustangs ahead 19-17. A service error followed and the Phantoms were back on a roll again with eight of the next 10 points to win the game and match.

“This is the toughest team we’ve played so far,” Matthews said.

They’ll meet again Oct. 17 back at Mount Sinai. And if history is any indication, they may very well meet once more after that.

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