By TONY BELLISSIMO
The Marines, seeded third, took out No. 10 Bellmore-JFK in four games and will now meet top-seeded West Hempstead in Thursday afternoon's championship match at C.W. Post. West Hempstead defeated fourth-seeded Lawrence in Tuesday's other semifinal.
Prior to the semifinal match, Long Beach head coach Bill Gibson was feeling pretty good about his team's position. "Being one of the last four teams standing is every team's goal," he said. "With the exception of the first game against Great Neck South, we've played really well the past few weeks."
The Marines, who defeated Great Neck South twice during the regular season, were stunned by the Rebels in the opening game of last Friday's quarterfinal victory. It ended 25-12 in favor of the visitors, but Long Beach responded to a challenge from Gibson. The Marines stole the momentum with a 25-8 romp in the second game and never let up.
"We didn't follow the game plan in the first game, and I told the kids if they were going to lose to go down playing the way we're supposed to play," Gibson said. "We made a bunch of errors. It was as though we were too fired up. Once we settled down, we were fine."
With All-County seniors David Yolinsky (27 kills, seven blocks) and Alan Cohn (10 kills, 22 assists, 14 digs, six blocks) leading the way, the Marines went on to win games three and four, 25-18 and 25-21, to improve to 15-3 overall and set up a meeting with upstart Bellmore-JFK, which knocked off No. 7 Syosset and second-seeded Plainview to get to the semis.
"We were expecting to meet Plainview, which is one of our biggest rivals," Gibson said. "Bellmore is obviously playing a lot better than it was earlier in the season, and we definitely have to respect them."
Long Beach swept Bellmore-JFK twice during the regular season. The Marines and Plainview split matches. The second meeting of that series saw Cohn, the team's primary setter for years, top 3,000 assists for his career to highlight a three-game sweep.
"We have to serve tough and keep Kennedy off the net," Gibson said before the semifinal win.
The second-round playoff victory over Division saw Yolinsky (16 kills, five aces), Cohn (16 assists, 10 digs, eight kills) and sophomore setter Jarrett Rubin (13 assists, 12 digs) spark a 25-13, 25-19, 25-21 sweep. Seniors Travis Brush, Todd Rubin and Bryan Gergen, junior Todd Shaeffer and sophomore Tom Wondsel also played key roles.
"The final would be tough no matter what," Gibson said. "West Hempstead's been the team to beat all season long."
