Surge lands Marines in finals

From a 1-6 start to a spot in the Nassau Class B championship match was the unlikely road traveled by the Long Beach boys’ volleyball team, which avenged two regular-season losses to both defending county champion Bellmore-JFK and top-seeded Floral Park along the way.

“Nobody expected us to go as far as we did,” Marines coach Bill Gibson said. “We weren’t playing as a team and didn’t have any confidence early in the season. We improved gradually and turned a corner when we started to play Class B schools the second time around.”

Fifth-seeded Long Beach’s dynamic playoff run ended with a three-set loss to No. 2 Roslyn in the finals on Nov. 6 at Hofstra. The Bulldogs prevailed for their first county crown in program history, 28-26, 25-18, 25-20 behind Noah Nardone’s 21 kills, 16 assists and seven aces. Jason Goldstein added 20 assists.

“Our serve-receive just wasn’t there,” Gibson said. “We weren’t getting the first pass where we needed it to be. In the second and third games, we just didn’t play the way we did in the quarters and semis. We were never in sync.”

Gibson attributed the Marines’ slow start to a new conference arrangement that included Class A schools, plus the fact many opponents featured more club players. “We weren’t prepared to face those teams early in the season,” he said. “We started to come together at a tournament upstate, and we had some scrimmages against Plainview that really helped.”

Though Long Beach (9-11 overall) didn’t record back-to-back wins during the regular season, Gibson said it played markedly better in the second half. “The kids were persistent and stayed positive,” he said. “We lost 3-2 to Kennedy twice. We lost 3-1 at Roslyn in September, but came back to beat them at home in October. The only bad match we had in October was against Floral Park, but then we came up big in the semis.”

The Marines, who mostly used a rotation of seven seniors and junior setter Seamus McDonough, opened the playoffs with a convincing sweep of No. 12 Calhoun on Oct. 29. McDonough dished out 26 assists, senior libero Matt Kranitz had 12 digs, and senior Jack Linnehan served four aces. “We a team that relied on serving and ball control, and running a fast offense,” Gibson said.

Two days later, Long Beach went on the road and dethroned Kennedy in a hard-fought match. McDonough had 41 assists, senior Jack Meyers registered 14 kills and 12 digs, and senior Elijah Parks added 14 kills in a 27-25, 26-24, 22-25, 25-23 victory.

The semis on Nov. 4 were played at a familiar site — Plainview. Only this time when the Marines got off the bus, they weren’t there to scrimmage the host Hawks. After taking just one of seven sets against Floral Park during the regular season, they rallied from a set down to win 23-25, 25-18, 18-25, 25-23, 25-22. Seniors Luke Gelfand (19) and Jack Gesuale combined for 33 kills, while senior Ryan Silverman added 13 digs and four aces.