New Coach Eager To Lead Girls’ Volleyball

The new volleyball coach at Branford High is only a few years older than some of the players on the high school team. And for her that’s a plus.

Cody Michaels, 22, was graduated from Quinnipiac University this past June where she majored in Health Science Studies. A former All City First Team honoree and All Tournament player in high school, Michaels played volleyball for the Division I Bobcats and coach Kris Czaplinski. Here the coach smiles at Marisa Minore after winning a point.

In her final collegiate volleyball match she reached 1,000 career digs with nine against Fairfield in the MAAC championship. She finished with 1,004. She made the MAAC All Academic Team in both her junior and senior year.

I’m very happy to be at Branford working with such an enthusiastic and scrappy bunch of girls,” said the new coach. ​“I’m a young coach (the youngest in the SCC), and I believe I can get them to buy into what it takes to be successful once they believe in me.” Here Haley Maercklein gets one of her four kill shots.

Born in Bridgeport, her family later moved to Versailles, Kentucky. She graduated from Lexington Catholic High School where she earned three varsity letters in volleyball. She earned All City First Team honors twice.

The Hornets started out a little slow losing their first three matches to Fairfield Warde, East Haven and Shelton before breaking out with three wins in the last four games. They shut out Lauralton Hall (3 – 0), North Haven (3 – 0), and Hillhouse (3 – 0), losing only to Guilford (3 – 1) to improve to 3 – 4.

In one of their earlier matches against Shelton, The Eagle was there to meet the new coach and cover the match against the Gaels. Branford battled the visitors losing three games to one by scores of 21 – 25, 27 – 25, 25 – 22, and 15 – 25. Here Co-captain Erin O’Brien sets up a teammate.

Here Senior Lauren Elmasry gets ready to return a shot.

And here Senior Jamie Fappiano returns a shot as Marisa Minore moves in.

Junior Taryn Broughal spikes one for the Hornets.

For the Shelton match co-captain Haley Maercklein had four kills and 11 blocks, while Diana Karosas had 10 kills, and co-captain Marisa Minore had six kills.Here Maercklein gets in position to set up a teammate.

Checking out the action are assistant coaches Giovanni Meier and Brianna Meier.

The entire team reacts to a winning point in one of the close games.

“Even though we lost today we saw good things and can one hundred percent use this game as a stepping stone to the next one,” said Coach Michaels. ​“We did some really great things but at the same time we did some very silly things. (I believe)…we beat them in the majority of the categories but the problem lies in that we also led in errors.”

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