Lady Bonacker Receives Full Ride To Division I College

Raya O'Neal, a setter for the East Hampton High School girls volleyball team, has earned a full college scholarship to play Division I volleyball at Virginia's Hampton University, which is ranked number one in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

While there have been other Lady Bonackers to play volleyball in college as a walk-on, she is the first to take a full scholarship with a Division I school, according to Coach Kathy McGeehan. She is signing her National Letter of Intent this week to join the Lady Pirates, who are heading into the quarterfinals of the 2013 MEAC Championships on Friday.

Raya, who will graduate in June, said she visited Hampton, Va., over the summer after her mother recommended it. "I actually really liked it — the water, the atmosphere of the campus. The team was also really nice," she said. "I'm really excited."

Raya has been an integral part of the winning volleyball teams for the past five years, as she joined the team in eighth grade. From 2009 to 2013, she helped them to three league championships, one county and Long Island championship and three county finals, McGeehan said. The 2013 team were League 6 champions, but lost in the county class B finals.

She's been the starting setter for the last four years and a hitter the past two two years.

Raya leads career statistics in three out of the five categories, McGeehan said. She holds the career kills title with 764, career aces with 201, and career assists with 1,976. Her sister, Myra O'Neal, an opposite hitter who was a few years ahead of her in school, still holds the career blocks title with 153. Their parents are Louis O'Neal and Tina Giles, of East Hampton.

"Four out of the five categories are held by O'Neal girls. That's pretty impressive," McGeehan said.

Raya also plays club volleyball with the Island Volleyball Academy, practicing in Lindenhurst or Oakdale, and a new season after Thanksgiving. Last summer, the team went to Nationals in Texas, which is where Hampton University took notice of her talent.

"You've got to play volleyball year-round to keep it up," Giles said of the commitment her daughter has made to the sport.

Raya is a good student, as well. Principal Adam Fine said she is the president of the Student Association, and he is taking her and several others on the association to the upcoming the New York State Class Leadership Conference.

Each morning, Raya addresses students over the paging system in the high school. "She's a real communicator," Marilyn Marsilio, her guidance counselor said. "She's not afraid of challenging herself and that's visible in the classroom and on the volleyball court," she said.

Giles said Marsilio ensured that Raya continued to push herself academically and had all the right classes heading into college.