Long Beach Falls Short in County Championships

Long Beach girls' volleyball fought Massapequa to a standstill in three games in the Nassau County Class AA girls' volleyball title game at C.W. Post on Wednesday, but lost each of them and the chance to grab the championship crown from their conference rivals.

By scores of 25-12, 25-18 and 25-14, the Chiefs handed their coach, Carolann Habeeb-Kiel, her eleventh championship in as many seasons.

"We had a great season, but Massapequa came up big today," said Long Beach coach Kerry Rehnback. "We served well, but we didn't pass well, and we didn't minimize our errors."

While Massapequa had five hitters with five or more kills on the day, the Marines were led at the net by two main hitters: Chelsea Braga, with 11 kills, and Patricia Murphy, who chipped in seven.

"We knew what Braga can do, and we were ready for them," said Massapequa setter Kristen Marchisotto. "Long Beach played well, they set up their plays well; we had to step it up today."

Having lost to the Massapequa twice this season – including a three set loss in the regular season finale – the Marines knew they were in for the fight of the year against the 10-time champions.

So Long Beach keyed up and played tough in game one to a 7-7 tie before Massapequa got a run of six service winners from Erin Bies. A few consecutive service errors for Long Beach enabled Massapequa to extend the run into the hands of server Joanne Josephson, who ran off a string of six herself to put the first game out of reach.

Game two looked to have a Long Beach tilt to it, as good sets from Haley Crane (16 assists) enabled Braga and Murphy to spike their team to a 13-9 lead.

But the Chiefs found their footing at that point, riding a string of service wins by Heather Sweeney (4 in a row) and Ashley Gubista (8 in a row) to a decisive 23-18 score. Two aces from the hands of Bies, and the Chiefs were sitting pretty at 2-0.

To their credit, Long Beach had no quit in them despite being down to the undefeated conference leaders. While falling behind 12-5, Braga gave her team a lift with a dramatic six-win service run, including two aces, and Massapequa called a time out with a slim 12-11 lead.

But that was as close as Long Beach would come. Marchisotto rattled off five service winners of her own, and it remained for the Chiefs to take it all — game 3, the match and the county crown — on two rattling kills from Heather Sweeney

"My girls play hard today, even harder than the past two weeks," said Massapequa coach Carolann Habeeb-Kiel after the match. "We had a lot of teamwork and motivation, and we worked hard."

For Long Beach, after battling through a season of mixed accomplishments, the prospect of facing 10-time county champ couldn't have been an inviting one.

"We had a great season, but we came up short today," said Rehnback. "We couldn't use all our offensive weapons today, and we made too many errors."