Long Beach Boys Volleyball Falls to Massapequa in Semi-Finals

The Long Beach Marines boys volleyball team’s season came to a close Tuesday at Hofstra University with a Class A semifinal loss to two-time defending Nassau County champion Massapequa. 

The No. 4 Marines (13-7) fell in straight sets to the No. 1 Chiefs (18-0): 25-15, 25-12 and 25-21. The loss was Massapequa’s second defeat of Long Beach this season.

Long Beach was led by sophomore Josh Ayzenberg with nine kills, senior Adam Lazare with seven kills, senior Bret O’Neill with six kills and senior Andrew Still with 27 assists. Senior Chris Husmann and Steven Woessner had 13 kills and senior Christian Smith had six kills and 26 assists for undefeated Massapequa, which will play No. 3 Plainview JFK for the Class A title Thursday.

“The effort was there but we had the serving errors in the first two games,” said Long Beach head coach Bill Gibson. “We have improved. We had two close losses [to Port Washington and Plainview] in season that could’ve gone either way. One of those wins would’ve changed our seeding position, so we could’ve met Massapequa in the finals.”

Husmann got Massapequa off to a fast start with three early kills in the first set, along with a pair from senior Rob Wallace. However, two kills by Lazare kept the score close in the early going for Long Beach until their opposition rallied off seven consecutive points to take a commanding 15-7 lead. Holding off a late Long Beach comeback, which included a pair of kills from O’Neill, Massapequa took a one-set lead.

The Chiefs picked up where they left off in the second set, jumping out to a 15-4 lead and forcing the Marines to call timeouts more often than they had hoped for in an attempt to regroup. The middle frame was never in doubt as Massapequa won by 13 to take a 2-0 set lead.

In the third and deciding set, Ayzenberg took control early on, collecting three kills. In a set that featured nine different tie scores, Long Beach found itself with an opening to pull through. Ayzenberg served up an ace to tie the score at 13-13 for the Marines, who later took a 17-15 lead.

But like they have done in each match this season, Massapequa found a way to come out on top. The Chiefs scored seven of the next nine to lead 22-19 before going on to win the semifinal match.

“The first two games, the passing was clean and we were running a lot of in-system offense,” said Massapequa head coach Steve Mariano. “The boys are trying to defend two years in a row, so that should be enough motivation right there.”

For the likes of Ayzenberg and junior Scott Blumenfield, they will look to lead the Marines next fall with very high hopes.

“We wanted to finish the season strong,” Ayzenberg said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better season, but some of the calls just didn’t go our way. I’m going to miss all of our seniors because they contributed to our whole team.”