Volleyball teams excited for stretch run

The Glen Cove girls’ volleyball team traveled cross-town to North Shore High School for a non-league matchup in an unsuccessful effort, losing 3 matches to none in a clean sweep for the Lady Vikings on Sept. 27. 

“Unfortunately, we started off a bit lackadaisical in the first match, but the girls made their way back in the end, especially in the last match,” Glen Cove head coach Matt Carbone said.

In the first set, North Shore took a commanding 14-5 lead on the back of a few early serves and points from co-captain Milagros Buschfrers. She was involved heavily in all three matches, lurking around the net making key spikes and leading her team on the court. 

“We always have a lot of fun and whoever is on the court, we try and play together to win a set and just play good volleyball,” Buschfrers said along with fellow co-captain Meagan Kearney.

Glen Cove stormed back to cut the deficit to 21-17 with some rallying points from Margaret Lynch and Alyssa Schmitt, but North Shore closed the match taking the first set 25-21.

The second set started off much closer, but after an 8-point rally with every point coming from either an Amber or Jade Diaz kill, North Shore rode to a 25-18 victory.

Glen Cove’s Schmitt anchored her team and led them back to within 3 points of North Shore late in the set. Unfortunately, it was again too little too late despite the impressive composure shown by the Lady Big Red.

“Glen Cove is much improved and they’re our neighbors,” North Shore head coach Tracy Iocavelli said. “But although this was another non-league game, we’ve had a few games out of league in a row so we wanted to use this match to re-gel our starters to get back to league play.”

In the third set, just as Carbone had mentioned, his girls opened the match with more fervor and got out to an early 5-1 lead. Throughout the course of the match, Glen Cove’s Nafeesah Ali impressed thoroughly with her athletic kills and Evelyn Tran pumped up her teammates with some passionate serves mid-match.

Amber Diaz came along strong late in the match, and along with Bushfrers, took the third match from Glen Cove with good digs and teamwork.

This clean sweep marks the fourth of the season for the Lady Vikings. Glen Cove looks forward to its next league matchup against Valley Stream North, looking to stay towards the top of Nassau Conference A4.

“We want to come out 110 percent right from the start,” Carbone said. “I think we were walking around at the beginning, going forward I think we have the ability to play better.”

Iocavelli was adamant that her girls were excited for their home matchup with Calhoun this Friday. “They’re pumped for that one. We actually lost to them earlier on in the season after a two-set lead, and we have to remember to play through the last whistle on every play,” Iocavelli said.