Vikings Volleyball Beats Hicksville in Quarterfinals

The Schreiber Vikings varsity volleyball team opened its playoff run on Friday with a convincing 3-0 win over the Hicksville Comets in the Nassau Class A quarterfinals. The No. 3 seeded Vikings (14-3) won in three straight by scores of 25-20, 25-18 and 25-13 over No. 6 Hicksville (7-9).

Adam Epstein led Schreiber with 13 kills, followed by Dan Bernstein with 11.  Sung Kim set up many of those kills as he dished out a game-high 26 assists.

The two teams traded points in game one, with Hicksville coming to within two points at 22-20 before Schreiber put them away with three straight points.

Schreiber quickly opened up a big lead in game two with an 8-0 run behind the service of captain Adam Epstein. Epstein's serves were all directed to freshman Mike Gaudelli, who had trouble even putting the ball in play. "That serve was like a knuckleball," Epstein explained. "It shakes from side to side, so it's hard to judge where it's going."

The Vikings had a little trouble of their own with serves in the second game. Leading by the score of 21-10, Hicksville sophomore Alex McKiel had two straight service aces of his own, with the ball falling between Schreiber defenders both times. But Bernstein slammed the door on the Comets' mini-run with a forceful kill to keep the Vikings up by nine. While Hicksville kept battling, getting as close as 23-17, Schreiber finished them off just three point later with a seven-point win.

Epstein got the Vikings off to a good start in game three, leaping above the net for what looked like an easy kill. But instead of spiking the ball, he tapped it between two defenders who had braced themselves for another powerful blast. Port scored the next three points as well to open the game up 4-0, and this time the Vikings never let their opponents mount any sort of a threat, defeating the Comets, 25-13, to take the match in straight sets.

 "Hicksville is a respectable team," coach Maria Giamanco said, "but we stuck to our game plan and things went well."

The semifinal match will take place on Tuesday, May 25, against No. 2 Plainview JFK, which defeated Port Washington in straight sets earlier this season. Plainview rolled over its quarterfinal opponent on Friday, defeating East Meadow, 3-0, and in one game holding them to just nine points.

Since Schreiber's April 20 loss to Plainview, the Vikings have won 10 out of their last 11. The team looks primed and ready for the rematch.

"We got everything done that we wanted to do," junior Daniel Chu said, "and now we're going to the semifinals."