Center Moriches starts quick despite long layoff, captures Suffolk Class B girls volleyball title
Izzy Rayburn #19, middle, and her Center Moriches teammates celebrate after their win over Babylon in the Suffolk Class B girls volleyball championship on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. Credit: James Escher
It’s been a long time since Center Moriches girls volleyball could call itself a county champion. Julia Hromada’s ability to find her teammates helped the Red Devils earn that right for the first time in 14 years.
Center Moriches defeated Babylon in four sets, 25-16, 25-18, 23-25, 25-13 on Thursday afternoon at Whitman in the Suffolk Class B final.
“We knew we had to come in and finish one of our preseason goals,” said Hromada, a setter who had 29 assists. “We’ve still got work to do, we all want to go to states, we’ve got to keep going and get there.”
The Red Devils came out of the gate hot, despite not having competed in a match since October 16, after securing a bye for the playoffs. They scored seven of the first nine points in the first set and the last five points to take a 25-16 win.
“We’ve just really pushed it in practice,” Izzy Rayburn said. “We couldn’t let anyone want this more than we do, so we had to really push if we wanted to make it to states.”
Center Moriches scored eight of the first 10 points in the second set. Hromada had four assists and Megan Franke had four kills during the stretch and 19 for the match.
Babylon put together a run and took a 14-13 lead after a Peyton Logue-Boyd kill. Center Moriches took home 12 of the next 17 points ending the set with a Cailey White kill off a Hromada assist.
“I feel like we were all connected today,” White said. “The energy was through the roof and it translated to amazing play.”
Babylon was able to grab the third set, pushing back from a 21-15 deficit, to win the set 25-23. Logue-Boyd closed out the set off an assist from Gigi Basile, but Center Moriches dominated the fourth, 25-13, to close out the match.
“I think we got too comfortable going into that set,” Franke said. “We had to come out and push way harder and that’s what we did.”
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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.
