During junior high and her early high school years, she was lucky enough to play with seniors like Brittany Lenart, Taylor Bowen and Tara Sweeney.

Then last fall, it was Angeletti’s turn to lead her team.

This year’s seniors may not get that opportunity.

Monday afternoon Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office confirmed that volleyball remains classified as a higher-risk sport and therefore local high school teams will not be allowed to play games Sept. 21 like most other fall sports.

Area coaches are hoping that changes.

“At the start of the pandemic when we started talking about what things could look like, the National Federation of State High School Associations had three classifications: low, moderate and high. Originally, volleyball was high risk but moved to moderate,” Debbie Schruefer, Section VI girls volleyball chair, said Wednesday evening. “When Monday’s decision came from the governor with (only) low risk and high risk, that’s when everybody was shocked.”

When the state Department of Health released its Interim Guidance for Sports and Recreation During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency in June, volleyball was included on a list of higher-risk sports characterized by:

1) least ability to maintain physical distance and/or be done individually;

2) least ability to: 1) avoid touching of shared equipment, 2) clean and disinfect equipment between uses by different individuals, or 3) not use shared equipment at all

“With volleyball, you don’t cross the net, but you are touching the same ball,” Panama head coach Tammy Hosier said Wednesday afternoon. “You could have four people in the corners wiping the ball and have a clean ball every time you serve. … You could really eliminate a lot in volleyball.”

Beginning July 6, the state DOH said that in regions that have entered Phase 3 of reopening, participants in higher-risk sports and recreation activities may only partake in individual or distanced group training and organized no/low-contact group training.

“We talked about a three-, four- or five-ball rotation and after a side out that ball is taken out, sanitized and another ball is in,” Schruefer said. “We talked about not changing sides after each set. People have talked about putting a shield over the net and things of that sort.”

Now, nearly two months later with the state’s daily COVID-19 infection rate low, the governor’s office has stuck to the Health Department’s original recommendations.

“I really thought we’d be out for two weeks and once spring break was over we’d be back,” Chautauqua Lake head coach Joanne Meadows said Wednesday. “Once our club season got canceled, I started thinking about it, but I thought even up until the start of August that we’d get to play in the fall.”

Boys and girls cross country, boys and girls soccer and girls tennis are set to begin practices Sept. 21 with games presumably coming shortly thereafter.

“Now that they’ve labeled volleyball a higher-risk sport it’s very surprising,” Hosier said. “At first (Monday) volleyball wasn’t listed anywhere. I kept looking and the speculation was there that it was high risk. … I texted Debbie Schruefer and she said unfortunately it was true, but hopefully within the next week that would change.”

Football and volleyball will have to wait — although the governor’s office did say Monday that those sports could “continue practice” at this time while waiting for further guidance. That came as news to local coaches in both sports, who have not been able to practice with their teams since the pandemic began due to New York State Public High School Athletic Association guidelines.

“We’ve been in touch with the kids since quarantine started,” Meadows said. ” … Recently, thinking we’d start on Sept. 21, we’ve been doing some Zoom workouts and other stuff to keep in shape. … My kids are pretty dedicated and I really have to commend them because they have been doing it on their own.”

Now athletics programs are left to wonder if NYSPHSAA will consider their original plan of a shortened spring season for fall sports that are unable to play in their originally scheduled season. That may leave football and volleyball players to decide two things: if there is another fall sport they would rather play and if they would rather play football or volleyball rather than a different spring sport that may overlap with the newly created season.

“I’m hoping either NYSPHSAA clears it up and we can start our games like the rest of fall sports,” Meadows said, “or they can push it to a later time.”

In small schools like Chautauqua Lake and Panama, that might create a numbers crunch on teams with low participating numbers.

“I would rather see the shorter seasons for football and volleyball because they are major sports for kids in this area,” Meadows said of missing out in the fall.

“In a small school, there is so much overlap,” Hosier said. “Kids would have to pick between sports and that’s not something that’s fair to them.”

With over three weeks to go before the Sept. 21 opening date of other fall sports, people are staying upbeat.

“We have to stay the course. If we get too angered and embroiled in negative conversations it’s not going to work for everyone involved,” Schruefer said. “At least they haven’t used the word ‘canceled.’ There will be a season. Is it going to look different? Yes. Do we know when? No.”