Sayville girls volleyball finally brings home Long Island Class A championship

After all the valiant efforts that came up just shy, Sayville girls volleyball has finally captured its “big fish.”

The previous two years, Sayville coach Debra Urso and her teams had made it all the way to the Class A Long Island championship match, only to fall short. While the winners of the match were always given a large wooden plaque cut out into the shape of Long Island, Sayville had to settle for the smaller, less glamorous plaque each of the last two years. This time, the Golden Flashes brought home their desired trophy as they defeated South Side in four sets on Wednesday at Hauppaugue High School, 21-25, 25-19, 28-26, 25-19, to become Long Island champions for the first time ever.

“It feels amazing,” Urso said. “I am so proud of these girls. It’s been a long journey. Many of our teams have been well-deserving of this, but we finally put it over the top and did it this year.”

After dropping the opening set and falling behind 12-9 in the second, Sayville (18-1) used kills from four different players to ignite a 10-3 run. After going up 19-15, senior outside hitter Adria Vargas took it to another level and helped the Flashes salt away the victory by serving the set-winning ace. In the pivotal third set, Sayville found itself down by one at game point, but a kill from Vargas tied it up and forced extra play, where she ultimately notched the game-winning kill to give her team a 2-1 set lead.

Vargas opened the fourth set at the service line and got her team off to a 6-0 start, largely thanks to her three aces. After getting off to the big lead, Sayville never looked back, as its advantage never shrunk any lower than five points for the rest of the match. Fittingly, after a long rally, Vargas leapt up, wound back and blasted the match-clinching kill down to send Sayville to the state tournament.

Vargas finished with 21 kills, five aces and two blocks. After tearing her ACL before the 2023 season began, Vargas was happy to return to the floor and take care of unfinished business.

“It was very challenging, but I think I always knew I’d come back,” Vargas said. “I really love volleyball. I don’t think I could ever give it up. I worked really hard to get here. It’s so amazing and I’m just really happy with what we accomplished.”

Other notable contributors for Sayville include middle hitter Khylee Boesch, outside hitter Trinity Ricevuto and setter Elena Haakonson. Boesch totaled eight kills and six blocks, Ricevuto added 11 kills and Haakonson had 22 assists.

South Side finished 16-2.