Kennedy Boys Volleyball Advances to County Finals With Rout of Bethpage

The Kennedy boys volleyball team took down Bethpage in the Class B county semifinals at Herricks High School on Thursday night.  

Led by senior co-captain Brian O'Gorman, who finished with a career-high 17 kills as well as five blocks, the second-seeded Cougars (15-1) completed their 11th sweep of the 2010 season against the third-seeded Golden Eagles (12-2): 25-14, 25-20, and 25-23.  

"When you are in the county semifinals, you need your big players to step up," Kennedy head coach Dennis Ringel said. "Brian is just a very big presence for us. We went with our game plan to feed him the ball as often as possible when he was in the front row."  

The Cougars made quick work of the first set with the help of O'Gorman, who had three kills in the first four points. Junior Ben Canarick helped the team early on with two blocks in a row at the net against Bethpage's attack.  

The Golden Eagles jumped out to an early 7-3 lead in the second set, but the stingy Cougars defense battled back to even the score at 11-11 and eventually to a two-set advantage. Bethpage found themselves out in front again midway through the third set, but the front line of Kennedy proved too much as the Cougars pulled ahead and closed out the set for the sweep.  

"We played great compared to our match on Monday against Lawrence," O'Gorman said. "We had some shaky starts but came back and really played as a team here."  

Canarick potentially had the best match of his career, according to Ringel, with eight kills and being a persistent presence at the net on defense. Senior co-captain Ben Hirschler added eight kills of his own as well as two aces. Senior libero Dylan Simonson had a stellar game, collecting 27 digs and five aces in just the three games.  

"I thought we played really well, came together and executed our game plan and just came out strong," Simonson said. "Also, I thought Brian played the best game of his life, came through on blocks, had multiple kills, and just came through in the clutch."  

Bethpage was only able to muster 12 successful kills against O'Gorman and the Kennedy front line. Senior Matt Ogden had six assists as well.  

"This is the first time Bellmore has seen us, and we tried to run a different style of offense against them, but without good passing from us mixed with the hard hitting from them, it is hard to run," Bethpage head coach Chrissy Bennett said. "The pressure was really on them, not us. It could've certainly gone a different way if we made the adjustments early on in the match."  

The Cougars advance to the Class B finals next Thursday where they will take on Floral Park at 6:30 p.m. at the Hofstra Physical Fitness Center in an attempt to collect their third-consecutive Nassau County championship. Kennedy defeated the Knights in September.  

"Floral Park is a great team, very well-coached and do a lot of really good things," Ringel said. "They are an enthusiastic and energetic team that has given us some fits over the last couple of years. It is always an exciting match against them, so we are looking forward to it."