Photo by Bill O’Brien
L-R SCC Commissioner Al Carbone, Co-captains Julia Watsky, Tally, Jocelyn Giordano, coach Bill Previdi and SCC tennis Co-chair Jake Palluzzi receiving their runner up award after the Southern ConnecticutConference (SCC) Division II title match in 2014. Branford lost to Cheshire High School that year.
Bill Previdi, Branford High School’s tennis coach and the members of his team are heartbroken over the death of Tally Sepot, a player he described as a “natural leader,” and a “wonderful sport” no matter what the outcome of a match.
“She was a very gutsy player and never gave up. Her matches were the longest ones of any member of the team because she was such a fighter and never quit,” he said in an interview yesterday.
Coach Previdi (pictured here with Tally) and the team (Tally graduated from Branford High in 2014) were reeling from the news that Tally had died in a devastating one-car crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike Sunday. She and six other Penn State students were returning to campus when the SUV went out of control on a curve, a police report said yesterday, flipped over and crashed. The group was returning to campus after having participated in a charitable event near Philadelphia. Click here to read our earlier story.
L-R Julia Watsky, Jocelyn Giordano and Tally, the 2014 tennis co-captainsat their end of season dinner.
“This is heartbreaking losing Tally. I can’t believe it,” the coach said. “I heard from many of her teammates today who are very distraught over what happened to her. They are devastated.”
Previdi said he, too, was devastated by the news. He told the Eagle he received a call today “from the father of the girl from Cheshire whom Tally played in the final match telling me he never saw a competitor like Tally give so much to try to win her match. She just never quit.”
Tally was the daughter of Joe Sepot, a prominent Branford architect, and Claudia Sepot. The family lives in Pine Orchard.
Tally was 19 and a sophomore at Penn State when she died Sunday in car crash Sunday afternoon. She and six other Penn State students were traveling west on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in a 2004 SUV, a model which seats five people, not seven.
New Information Emerges
According to new information from the state police, the vehicle the seven students were driving in was a 2004 GMC Envoy — a car with a known rollover history. After the SUV lost control on a curve, it overturned, a state police report says and Tally was ejected from the SUV. She died at the scene. The Envoy was destroyed in the crash, the report said.
The reason the SUV went out of control is under investigation, state police said. So far the speed the SUV was traveling at is not known. Nor is it clear if each of the seven students actually had a seat to sit in. Besides the driver, who was sitting in what seat is not yet known.
Police identified Max Titlebaum as the driver, and according to one news report listed the primary violation as “careless driving.”
For some reason Titlebaum allegedly drove from the right lane onto the shoulder, and then turned abruptly back onto the highway before swerving right, police said.The vehicle then overturned, struck the guide rail, and landed upright. Police describe the condition of the vehicle as “destroyed.” The accident remains under investigation.
Four of the six other students sustained injuries; two did not. All were taken to Paoli Memorial Hospital in Chester County on Sunday. The six were identified as Penn State students Victoria Barrett, Sarah Bixby, Claire Fountas, Matthew Hrynkow, Brooke Kalodner and Titlebaum. Barrett and Hrynkow were not injured, the other four students were, a state police report says.
Tally was a sophomore majoring in graphic design. She was returning home with members of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority and the Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) fraternity when the accident happened, according to a Penn State news release issued Sunday night.
She was a devoted member of a team that worked hard to raise funds for children suffering from pediatric cancer.
All coaches learn a great deal about their players, about their drive, about their personality when competing and when not competing.
In the locker room.
“Tally was a natural leader. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for the team,” Coach Previdi said yesterday. As a team captain, he said, “she made everyone feel they were an important part of the team.” And she gave of herself.
“She was very charitable with her time and her talent,” he said sadly. “She was a wonderful young lady and she will be missed dearly.”
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Marcia, I suggest checking your facts before being irresponsible enough to submit a news article under "professional" authority. If you took a moment to look into the details of what you wrote about, you would know that the 2004 GMC Envoy she was in sat seven people, not five. Furthermore, if you even had some remote idea about the situation, you would understand Tally was the only one without a seatbelt meaning all other six students had one on. In your rush to attach your name to this story and put in any claim whatsoever to have any connection to this matter, you overlooked that fact that you made a complete assumption and ignorantly said the car sat five meaning two people would be without a seatbelt which is incorrect. In addition, upon updating the story, you continued to fail to mention these details. Get your facts straight before you have the audacity to suggest you're anything more than a self-indulgent blogger.