Massapequa defeats POB-JFK for its fifth straight county title
Massapequa teammates celebrate after their 3-0 win over Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK in the Nassau Class AA girls volleyball championship at SUNY Old Westbury's Clark Athletic Center on Monday. Credit: James Escher
The path to a county championship took a few different turns this season, Massapequa arrived at their destination in just as dominant fashion as ever.
No. 1 Massapequa defeated No. 3 Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK, 3-0, (25-19-25-21, 25-11) in the Nassau Class AAA final on Monday night at SUNY-Old Westbury. Carly Elfenbein had 14 kills as Massapequa won its fifth consecutive county championship.
“It’s so special winning each year, even though we were here last year, this is a new team,” Elfenbein said. “Each year feels a bit different. We all love playing together.”
Elfenbein showed off her strong swing right out the gate, slamming the ball down for the initial point of the first set. She had five kills in the first set as Massapequa jumped out to an early 9-2 lead.
The second set saw 11 ties as the Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK (7-8) managed to grab a 16-13 lead. Massapequa rallied with seven of the last 10 points, closing out the set on a Shea Ringel kill of an Allison Petrullo assist. Ringel finished with 12 kills and Petrullo had 29 assists.
“I know all my teammates pretty well, so I knew when and where they like the ball,” Petrullo, a senior setter said. “I put it in the best place for them to score and I love watching them slam the ball down.”
Massapequa left no doubt in the third set as it jumped out to a 16-4 lead. Elfenbein picked up six more kills in the set and Jolie Kanceler closed it out with an ace. Kanceler had five kills.
“We had to come back and think about what we were doing a bit, rethink about the goal we had,” Kanceler, a senior outside hitter said. “We just reaffirmed that we had each other backs and came out with a fire in that third set.”
Massapequa (13-3) had a 68-match win streak against Nassau opponents halted when they lost the first game of the season this year to Mineola, 3-0. That didn’t shake the team’s confidence as they swept two playoff matchups on the way to another county championship.
“We knew it was going to be hard, but everyone was ready to work this year,” Elfenbein, a senior middle said. “We really tried to mesh and everyone worked hard to make that happen.”
Massapequa will take on Commack in the Class AAA Long Island Championship on Thursday at 5 p.m. at SUNY-Old Westbury. It will be a rematch of the Class AA Long Island Championship which Massapequa won, 3-1, a season ago.
“We’re going to fine tune some things and watch some film,” Elfenbein said. “We know we have to come in, work hard and be confident.”
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.
