Lady Marines fall to Massapequa

Long Beach steamrolled its way through the first two rounds of the Nassau Class AA girls volleyball playoffs, knocking out No. 6 MacArthur (25-16, 25-18, 25-20 on Nov. 4) and No. 2 Farmingdale (25-16, 25-18, 25-15 on Nov. 8) in three-game sweeps, setting up a rematch with top-seeded Masapequa in the championship Nov. 10 at C.W. Post.

The third-seeded Lady Marines and the Lady Chiefs had squared off in the finals in each of the previous two years with Massapequa winning both, but the third time wasn’t a charm. Long Beach lost in straight sets (25-12, 25-18, 25-14), and the Lady Chiefs captured their 11th consecutive county crown.

“We made a lot of mistakes and a lot of errors,” Lady Marines coach Kerri Rehnback said. “In the end, it cost us.”

Trailing two sets to none, Long Beach looked to finally be on its way towards claiming a win in the third set. Massapequa had taken what appeared to be a commanding 12-4 lead, but the Lady Marines buckled down and stopped a seven-point run when senior outside hitter Jessica Amen scored on a return. With senior outside hitter Chelsea Braga taking over the serve, Long Beach reeled off the next six points to close within one point and forced Massapequa to call its only timeout of the match.

“We talked about going to win the serve back, running off passes and then running away,” Massapequa coach CarolAnn Habeeb-Kiel said of what was spoken of during the stoppage.

The talk worked, because coming out of the timeout, Braga’s next serve went into the net and the Lady Chiefs went on to score 15 of the final 17 points in the game. “We didn’t serve well and didn’t pass well,” Rehnback said. “We couldn’t use any of our weapons. They are very well-disciplined and have a lot of depth. We couldn’t receive their serve and didn’t do anything with it.”

In each of the three sets, Massapequa turned close early battles into big wins behind lengthy scoring runs that consistently put the Lady Marines on their heels. In fact, Massapequa never trailed by more than four points and used strong play at the net to dominate on the scoreboard. On top of the strong finish in the final game, the Lady Chiefs also ended the second game on an 11-4 run. “Long Beach is a great program,” Habeeb-Kiel said. “They practice hard, work hard and are a good team. Today we brought complete team play. Everyone really pulled together. Everyone distributed the ball nicely.”

Despite a season that ended just shy of a county title for the third time, the outlook remains bright for Long Beach. Two of the program’s top players, Braga and Amen, will graduate with a combined 11 years of varsity experience, but they are the only seniors on the team. A large group of experienced juniors, led by outside hitter Patricia Murphy, setter Haley Crane and libero Kaley Conner, will return.

“They have to fill in big shoes and have to work hard,” Rehnback said.