2011 Recap: Top 5 Sports Stories of the Year

As another exciting sports year comes to an end, it's time to look back at some of the sports moments that made 2011 so special.

We took a look at all of the sports stories we covered this year and did our best to narrow them down to the five biggest storylines. Some are individual games; others are teams that we will remember for years to come, all created memories that made 2011 a sports year to remember.

Here are our choices:

5. Harrison Girls Soccer Loses a Heartbreaker

It took four days, four overtimes and a round of penalty kicks for highly seeded John Jay to finally defeat the Harrison girls soccer team 3-2 this fall. The playoff game began on a Saturday, but  with the score tied at one.

A power outage at John Jay forced the game to be completed in Harrison the following Tuesday, where Harrison forced four overtimes before losing in penalty kicks.

Although an upset would have huge for the Harrison girls team, pushing a powerful team like John Jay to the limit in a playoff game shows the progress the girls have made over the last few years.

4. Harrison Cheer Travels to Nationals

For the Harrison cheerleading team it was another year, another trip to Florida for cheerleading nationals. The girls cheerleading has made the trip every winter for the last few years, earning invites by .

The girls had their best finish yet this Fevruary, finishing in the top half in their group in Orlando, FL., for the first time in school history.

3. Winter Track Piles Up Victories

This was a  for the Harrison winter track team, as the squad finished their season as league, section and county champions, along with a number one final state ranking in class B.

Individually Harrison finished the year with 13 league champions who broke 11 school records.

Zaid Al-Doori, who graduated this spring, represented Harrison at the state level by placing fourth in the 300-meter dash, becoming only the second male to medal at the indoor state meet in school history.

All things considered, the winter season represented one of the most successful years for Harrison track in recent memory and should serve as a building block for the team in 2012.

2. Rye Beats Harrison... Again

Harrison sports fans know that any list compiling the biggest moments of the year wouldn't be complete without the annual Rye-Harrison football game. Arguably the region's biggest sports rivalry, the game is played every year in front of thousands of fans.

The last few years, though, have been tough on the hometown Huskies. Rye has rattled off nine consecutive wins.

The streak continued this year on October 15, when  behind two touchdown passes from Rye freshman quarterback Andrew Livingston.

1. Harrison Volleyball Repeats as Section Champions

Down 2-0 to Section I power Ursuline, the Harrison volleyball team rallied to win the final three sets 25-20, 26-24 and 25-19 to . 

Harrison was led by a strong group of seniors including Jessica Segal and Lily Stokoe, who were named Con Edison players of the week during their senior years. Other contributors included Elisa Santelia, Betsy Sanchez and Jenna Webb. The senior class won the first two section championships in Harrison girls varsity sports in at least 30 years.

This year's team went on to win a state playoff game before Over the last two years the Harrison volleyball team has gone 38-4, losing only to Fox Lane and Cornwall. The team hasn't lost at home in either of the last two years.