Vikings Volleyball Tops Calhoun For Third Straight Win

After starting the season with four consecutive wins, the Schreiber Vikings varsity volleyball team dropped two straight to Massapequa and Plainview JFK. The Vikings appeared to be a rejuvenated team after winning its last two matches against Oceanside and Syosset in straight sets.

They continued that trend on Tuesday defeating Calhoun in three games — 25-11, 25-19 and 27-25. Adam Epstein led the way with 16 kills and Dan Bernstein added 12 of his own for Port Washington as they swept the Colts at Calhoun High School.

"I think we played very well," coach Maria Giamanco said. "I was able play my bench, and it was important for them to have an opportunity to get on the court. It was a good day for us all around."

The Vikings (7-2) came out firing in game one, jumping to an early 9-2 lead after a kill from Sung Kim and an ace by Alex Monaco. Calhoun's Jacob Greenberg served an ace to put the Colts within seven at 14-7, but a kill from Andrew Vasquez put Port Washington up big at 23-9. The Colts got a late kill from Tom Murnane to put them in double digits, but the Vikings would win the game, 25-11, after a game-ending kill by Epstein.

"We were good all around today," Epstein said. "We didn't have many serving errors and we had pretty good blocking at the net. Our defense did a good job keeping balls in play that we needed to win."

An ace from Yordan Marambio gave the Vikings an early 7-3 lead in game two, but Calhoun didn't let it get away this time. Kills from Greenberg and Alex Morra cut Port Washington's lead to 15-14. However, the Vikings got a kill from Jong-Ho Byun to expand their lead, and went on to win the game 25-19 off a kill from Dean Takahashi.

"We played better than we played all season," Greenberg said of the Colts' performance on Tuesday. "But they were better than us and we just have to keep working and keep pushing. Our defense was pretty good and we passed better than we normally do. But they were just a better team."

Game three was the closest on the afternoon as the score remained nearly tied throughout. A kill from Bernstein put Port Washington up 16-15, but Corey Sweeney put away a kill of his own to tie it back up. An Epstein kill put the two teams at 22 a piece, and then a block by Murnane gave the Colts a 24-22 lead. But the Vikings would come back to tie it at 24 before Calhoun had its second match point opportunity at 25-24. However, the Vikings would claim the next three points and win the game, 27-25, off another kill by Bernstein.

"We played pretty well," Bernstein said. "I thought we underestimated Calhoun a little, but I thought we actually looked pretty good this game. We put in some of our subs and showed a lot of our depth, which I think is important."

The Vikings will go for their fourth win in a row on Thursday when they host East Meadow at 4:30 pm.