Long Beach Girls Volleyball Shuts Out Calhoun

The Calhoun girls volleyball team faced off against Long Beach Monday in a challenging league match-up.

The Long Beach Lady Marines have been one of the more dominant teams in Nassau County in recent years, and their meeting with the Lady Colts proved those accolades. Long Beach took down visiting Calhoun in straight sets, 25-17, 25-11, 25-10.

"We are a pretty young team right now," Calhoun coach Nicole Sabbatino said.  "They played hard and their defense is coming along. We are just waiting for that moment where we are able to come together. I could see it, but we just need to put that team aspect together."

Calhoun was able to quickly jump out to an early 6-0 lead in the opening set. Long Beach battled back to tie the score at 13 as the Lady Marines seized momentum behind the play of their senior leader, Chelsea Braga, along with senior Jessica Amen and junior Kaley Conner, who helped their squad take over the next two sets to eventually close out Calhoun.

"We got better as the match progressed," Long Beach coach Kerri Rehnback said. "We didn't play well right out of the gate, but by the last set of the match, they had really turned it on."

Braga finished with a game-high 12 kills, Amen contributed with seven aces and six digs, and Conner added four aces and eight digs for undefeated Long Beach.

"We have to stay energetic and keep our passes to the setter," Braga said.  "If we stay positive and be loud on the court and communicate, we will get what we need to done."

The Lady Colts have had a bumpy start to their 2010 season, facing off against three of the tougher opponents in the county in Garden City, Baldwin, and on Monday, Long Beach. However, they have the potential and talent to turn their season around and compete for a Conference III title.

Junior Jess Ruggiero led with two blocks and three kills for Calhoun. Freshman Lauren Streznec contributed with 11 assists, and junior Sam Baldauf added 10 assists of her own. Senior Tara Budgen was the key to the Lady Colts' solid defensive efforts, picking up six digs and constantly running down long balls.

"Our libero, Tara, played pretty well. She got to a lot of balls. We also got a couple good blocks in the middle," Sabbatino said. "However, as the team, I am looking for that steady improvement for the entire year because we have the tools to do it."

Long Beach is 3-0 on the season playing out of Conference I.

"Our strong points are our serving without a doubt, as well as attacking. We have to work on our defense, because that is what will win games," Rehnback said. "With that, we expect to hopefully have another shot at the county championship this year."

The Lady Colts, playing out of Conference III, are searching for their first win of the season.

Calhoun will look to get in the win column when they host a tough Massapequa team on Wednesday.