Long Beach girls volleyball captures LI Class AA title, extends coach Kerri Rehnback's time on sideline
The Long Beach team won the Long Island Class AA girls volleyball championship over Hauppauge on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. Credit: Dawn McCormick
Capturing a Long Island championship is sweet, but for Long Beach it came with an even bigger perk. The ability to get one, or even two more matches with coach Kerri Rehnback.
Long Beach defeated Hauppauge, 3-1 (25-15, 25-22, 17-25, 25-21), in the Long Island Class AA championship/Southeast Regional final on Friday morning at SUNY-Old Westbury, giving the Marines the chance to travel upstate with Rehnback before she retires at season’s end.
“This is my last season, I’ve been doing this for 20 years and it can be exhausting,” Rehnback said. “To be able to get this win and go out like this is incredible, these girls have worked so hard, and they deserve it.”
Long Beach trailed 19-15 in the fourth set, before rattling off 10 of the final 12 points, culminating with a Franki Kelleher kill. Amy Littman had two kills during the stretch, and Ivanka Priymak and Zoe Moller each had an ace.
“We played Hauppauge in a tournament, and we lost, so this was redemption for us,” Moller said. “We watched film and put together a good strategy coming in.”
Hauppauge staved off defeat in the third set thanks to strong play from Alison Tsororos. Tsororos had just four kills through the first two sets but had seven in the third set and four in the fourth.
“We came out really hot and maybe it caught them off guard a bit,” said Long Beach Hayley Lipinski, who had 40 assists. “We expected them to come back strong because they have some good players, but we knew we wanted it more.”
“In that set it was like they figured us out,” Littman said. “We started making too many mistakes and weren’t forcing them to make any.”
Kelleher and Littman set an early tone with numerous powerful spikes. Long Beach held an early 10-3 lead in the set as Kelleher totaled three kills. Littman had five kills in the set and finished with 11.
The Marines countered an early 7-6 lead for Hauppauge by staging an 11-6 run. Kelleher continued to flash her power and finesse, with nine kills in the set, including the final point. She finished with 22 kills.
Long Beach will face the winner of West Genesee/Columbia in the state semifinals next Sunday at Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls.
“We did it for coach Rhen,” Kelleher said. “Of course we wanted to get this done for ourselves, but especially for her.”
“We didn’t want it to end, we want to be playing until the last possible minute,” Rehnback said. "I’m hoping the team enjoys every moment of this, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I really hope they soak that in.”
Christopher Matias covers high school sports for Newsday after spending time in Athletic Facilities and Operation at St. John’s and in Sports Information at CUNY York college.
