Starting in Style: Vikings Sweep Dalers in Opener

The name of the game is consistency, and the Schreiber Vikings varsity volleyball team proved that true with a three-game sweep of the Dalers at Farmingdale High School on Wednesday afternoon. Each game, the Vikings cruised to 25-15 victories, and Coach Maria Giamanco said she was happy with her team's effort.

"I think we did well for our season opener," Giamanco said. "Once we started establishing an attack, things looked good."

Port Washington was led by senior tri-captain Adam Epstein, who was efficient in all facets of the game. Whether it was his vicious spiking or his dominating serving, Epstein was a force to be reckoned with. But he was quick to give credit to his teammates.

"It's not just me, but it's the setter too," Epstein said. "Sung [Kim] definitely helped me look good."

Giamanco was impressed with Epstein's efforts as well, but she stressed the team's depth. "One of our greatest strengths is that it's not just Adam," Giamanco said. "We have a fairly well spread out offense."

The first game went a bit back and forth early on, and at one point, Farmingdale had a 6-5 lead, but Epstein took over at server, and before you knew it, the Vikings had a 16-11 lead. They cruised from there.

Games two and three were never that close. Whenever it seemed like Farmingdale was going to make a run, the Vikings squashed their efforts, and Farmingdale coach Dave Otto said he was impressed by Schreiber.

"Port Washington is a very solid team," Otto said. "When you execute like they did, it is very tough to beat them."

While many Vikings seemed satisfied with most parts of their game, there is still room for improvement, according to senior tri-captain Dan Bernstein.

"I think we took it easy and underestimated them in the first game," Bernstein said. "We could've played better on defense."

The entire Port Washington volleyball team remains adamant that this is the year that they will finally get over the hump and win the county championship. And Giamanco was not intimidated by that possibility.

"Our goal is to climb the mountain," Giamanco said. "Today was step one."