Schreiber Volleyball Fights for Sixth Straight Victory

It was a day of high intensity and emotion at Schreiber High School as two tough teams in the Port Washington Vikings (10-2 Conference II) and the Long Beach Marines (6-4 Conference I) clashed on the volleyball court. Although the action went back and forth throughout, it was the Vikings that was able to escape with a victory in four games — 25-14, 22-25, 25-20 and 25-16.

It looked like it was going to be a rout from the early going. In the first game, the Vikings stormed out to a 10-1 early lead, and Long Beach coach Bill Gibson said he knew that was a deficit that would be impossible to come back from.

"With the new way that scoring is done, an eight- or nine-point lead is impossible to come back from," Gibson said. "We cannot allow teams to get an early lead on us like that."

The main cog of the Vikings' offensive attack was Adam Epstein, who had 20 kills in Wednesday's match. He also was effective on defense with three blocks in the contest.

"We love to play with emotion," Epstein said. "We need to play hard every second, and the emotions help us do that."

The second game was a completely different story. This time, it was Long Beach that got the quick start. The Marines led by as many as eight, although the Vikings did not go quietly. A late run trimmed the Long Beach lead to just two, but the Marines were able to hold on to even the match at one game a piece.

The third game was like an old fashioned showdown. Both teams exchanged points early on, and there were a number of impressible rallies. Finally, Port Washington created a little bit of space and opened up to a 17-10 lead, and a lot of that was thanks to Sung Kim, who had a career-high 51 assists on the afternoon. Often known as Port Washington's number one setter, Kim also found a lot of opportunities to finish the job himself.

"They left a lot of open space in the middle," Kim said. "Instead of setting, I was able to sneak a couple of points over. It made a huge difference in the game."

Schreiber coach Maria Giamanco said she likes Kim's enthusiasm, but doesn't want him to fall in love with his new-found trick.

"We don't want him doing that too much," Giamanco said. "If he does it too much, it won't be as effective."

The fourth game was another back-and-forth affair in the early going. But Port opened up a five-point lead to go ahead, 17-12, and Long Beach was never able to recover, giving the Vikings won the fourth game and the match.

Long Beach's Nick Smith wasn't too pleased with his team's overall effort.

"I was really expecting kids to step up," Smith said. "We had a few breakdowns on everyone's part, and it really cost us the match."

Port Washington made a number of diving saves on plays that looked like sure Long Beach points which Epstein said made a huge difference in the outcome of the match.

"Those plays are huge," Epstein said. "They really act as momentum changers. Great athleticism like that really pumps our team up."

Port Washington returns to action on Friday when they host Farmingdale (0-12 Conferecne II) at 4:30 p.m.