Mepham's Sam Raikos, Makayla Daube lift girls volleyball team to first Nassau championship

Sam Raikos, Makayla Daube and the Mepham girls volleyball team have been waiting for this moment for more than a year.

In a rematch of last season’s Nassau Class AA final, the Pirates finally got the ending they had been working toward.

Raikos had 18 kills, 10 digs and a block and Daube had six kills, 19 assists, two blocks and two aces to lead No. 2 Mepham to a 25-21, 17-25, 25-18, 25-20 victory over top-seeded Long Beach on Monday at East Meadow High School.

“Sports are huge at Mepham,” said Raikos, who helped the Pirates win their first county title in program history. “A lot of work goes into the football team and our cheer team and all the other teams, so having this many people come to volleyball and care about volleyball and having our names recognized is incredible.”

The Mepham bleachers were filled for the county championship match and the players fed off the energy.

“We’ve put in the work other years, but this year is the most work we’ve ever put in since I’ve been on varsity and it paid off.”

Long Beach won last year’s championship match in three sets, but this year’s regular season series was split with both matches reaching a fifth set.

“We did not play well as a team in last year’s game and we came together and realized that,” Daube said. “From the end of last season to now, we’ve worked so hard for this moment. We wanted to get our own banner and get that win.”

Daube, Sam Bremer and Kelly Caiaccia controlled the net with their blocking and were called “relentless” by coach Tom Wildeman. Bremer had seven blocks and Caiaccia added four.

“Our right sides and middles had really good communication today,” Daube said. “Our defense knew what our blockers were gonna do and that helped us out even when we didn’t get the block because it made it easier for our defense to pick it up.”

When the defense could keep a play alive and give Raikos a chance, she was lights out. After dropping the second set, Raikos had three kills early in the third set, where she totaled six kills. And when Long Beach forced a 14-14 tie in the fourth set, Raikos earned a kill to start a 5-0 run, propelling the Pirates to the finish line.

“She jumps to the sky and just has good volleyball instincts,” Wildeman said. “She knows when she has single blocks, double blocks or no blocks and she just reads the game. Her knowledge of this game is something you can’t teach.”

Bremer had eight kills, Alyssa Cinquemani had six kills, two blocks and three aces and Grace Brassill had 17 digs.

Ivanka Priymak had 15 kills and four aces, Julia DiGiorgio had nine kills and two aces and Franky DeCicco had six kills and two blocks for Long Beach, which finished 7-10.

Mepham (7-11) will play in its first Long Island championship game against Half Hollow Hills West at 7 p.m. on Thursday at East Meadow.

“We’re playing with house money now,” Wildeman said. “We’ve got to give it our best shot because we know [Hills West] is gonna bring it.”