Lindenhurst Boys Volleyball Falls in LI Championship

The ended Saturday afternoon, with the Bulldogs falling in three games to Massapequa in Long Island Division I championship at Hofstra.

The had no answer for the bigger and athletic Nassau County champs, whose ability to slam unreturnable kills and block Lindenhurst hitters was too much to handle.

“We had a game plan, but we couldn’t stick to it,” said Lindenhurst Head Coach Kevin Muscarello.

“We expected Lindenhurst to have a strong attack, and knew we could neutralize it,” said Massapequa Head Coach Steve Marino. “And we served tough - so we got to them first.”

Massapequa got itself untracked early in the first game, going on a 7-1 run to go up 10-4, on the strength of their top two hitters, Chris Husmann (13 kills) and Steven Woessner (seven kills), plus a number of points handed to them on unforced errors by the Bulldogs.

By the time Lindenhurst began to make its run in game one, it was too little too late - and strong play from Gerard Gigante (six kills), Robert Sarneckis (six kills) and Travis VonHolt (five kills) wasn't enough to prevent a lopsided 13-25 score.

Game two was far more competitive, and looked like it could go Lindenhurst’s way. After falling behind 4-8, kills by Gigante and Michael Comens, a big block from Comens, plus an ace from Chris DeLucie, tied things up at 11 a piece.

The Bulldogs made a good showing after that - three aces from Matt Reddington and some strong net hitting, and they were up 20-18. But Hussman took over after that, getting four of Massapequa’s next seven points on kills for a 21-25 score, and Lindenhurst found themselves deep in a hole at zero games to two.

Lindenhurst kept its game face on, and worked hard through game three, as VonHolt began hitting with authority - and the blocking of Joe Curry began to yield results. The Bulldogs were able to keep it close at 9-10. And two more aces from Redington, following a VonHolt kill, made it 12-15.

But that was all Lindenhurst was able to muster against the Nassau County champs on November 12. Massapequa simply had too much firepower, and there was little the Bulldogs could do to keep Christian Smith, Hussman and Woessner from combining for 12 kills in the finale to sweep the match.

With the victory Marino said his team was looking forward to being the first Nassau County team to go upstate to compete.

As for ? “We tried to push them deep, serve to their libero and throw off their passing a little bit,” said Muscarello. “But they were just too big. We couldn’t keep up with them.”