Sports
Comeback Kids: Vikings Volleyball Advances to Final
Varsity volleyball overcomes 0-2 deficit to Plainview JFK to advance to Class A championship game on Thursday vs. No. 1 Massapequa Chiefs.
On to the finals! Or, as coach Maria Giamanco put it, "Yeah, baby, yeah!"
In a come-from-behind battle against an opponent who beat them in straight sets earlier this season, the No. 3 Schreiber Vikings varsity volleyball team upset the No. 2 Plainview Hawks, 3-2, on Tuesday at Herricks High School by scores of 18-25, 23-25, 25-19, 25-20 and 25-18.
With the dramatic win, the Vikings advance to the Nassau County Class A Finals on Thursday at Adelphi University in Garden City against No. 1 Massapequa Chiefs, who are responsible for three of the four Vikings' losses this season.
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A key player in the Vikings' victory was setter and senior tri-captain Sung Kim with 42 assists. Yet the one play that Kim did not touch the ball may have been his best. In game four, with the score tied at 19 and the Vikings facing elimination, Kim defended a tough shot that angled over the net towards the sideline. He burst towards the ball, dropping to meet it and keep it alive. But he stopped. The instant before making contact, Kim spun away and allowed the ball to hit the floor — an inch outside the line. That play — both judging the ball's position so precisely and halting his own momentum, gave the Vikings a crucial 20-19 lead in a set with no margin for error. The Vikings went on to score the final five points of that game to even the match at two and force the deciding game.
"He works very, very hard every single day," Giamanco said of Kim. "He's very passionate about volleyball, and his hard work was evident on that play."
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Plainview took the first game 25-18. The game ended when senior tri-captain Adam Epstein faked a spike, leaving the ball for teammate Ben Adler who soared in from the backcourt. Adler's spike attempt, however, went into the net, putting the Vikings in a 1-0 hole.
The next game was within one or two points throughout. Epstein, who finished the match with a team-high 26 kills, spiked one of them through the Plainview defense to tie the score at 19. The Hawks, though, won the see-saw battle to 25 points and took a commanding two games to none lead in the match.
"After we were down two-to-nothing, we went back to our motto," Epstein said. "And the motto is, 'Never give up,' and we didn't."
Game three opened with the teams trading points until a tie at eight. The Vikings then went on a 9-4 run to open a five-point lead at 17-12. Plainview scored a couple to come to within three points, but the Vikings shut them down and went on to win 25-19.
The fourth game was another elimination game for the Vikings, and they fought from behind throughout. Plainview took a quick 4-1 lead, which they expanded to 14-8. A 5-1 Schreiber run got them to within two points at 15-13, but Plainview scored twice to get their lead back up to four at 17-13. The Vikings truly never gave up, winning six of the next eight points, and leading to Kim's heads-up play on the sideline to give Schreiber its first lead of the game at 20-19. During that stretch, the Vikings outscored Plainview 12-2 to force the fifth and deciding game.
At that point the momentum had shifted solidly to the Vikings. They opened game five on a 13-7 run, and had built that to 24-15 — match point — before Plainview finally staged a rally. Of course, it was much too late for the Hawks, and their three-point run never signaled a threat.
The Hawks' serve was taken by Michael Murphy, who bumped the ball perfectly to Kim in front of the net. Kim then did what he had done 41 times already that afternoon — set the ball for a kill. It was Epstein who came in from his corner position and finished off the Hawks with a sharp left-handed tap that angled in between the defenders and found the floor.
Senior tri-captain Daniel Bernstein, who added 11 kills on the day, reflected on the win. "We felt the heat coming when we were down two-to-nothing," he said. "But bottom line, I think we wanted it more than they did."
Coach Giamanco saw the rewards of her team's work in practice. "We really focused on our weaknesses in practice," she explained. "We had a lot of quality control and brought in our junior varsity coaches to help, and it really paid off."
Bernstein added, "You have to give a lot of credit to Plainview. They're an excellent team."
In the Nassau Class A finals on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Adelphi University, the Vikings will face an undefeated Massapequa Chiefs team — a team that has undeniably been the best team in the county all season long, only dropping one set all season on its way to a 20-0 record. The Vikings haven't won a single game versus the Chiefs this season, but have been hungry for another shot at them ever since. On Tuesday, they earned it.
