Seaford continues winning tradition

All they do is win.

The Seaford girls’ volleyball team, which has claimed five of the last six Nassau CLASS B championships, is poised for another title run in 2017 with an 11-1 start despite graduating most of its starters from last season’s team. The Lady Vikings have dropped just five sets all season and have recorded nine straight-set victories, including each of the last three matches entering Monday’s contest against Locust Valley.

All of this followed an incredible 18-1 season in 2016, which ended with a loss to Bayport-Blue Point in the Long Island Class B finals. 

“Missing a lot of the big hitters [from last year], a lot of people were like, ‘Are you guys going to be OK this year?’” said coach Marie Savage. “I knew this team was pretty smart. They just had to remember who they were and not try to be anybody else. I’m really proud of them.” 

After sweeping its first five matches of this season, Seaford suffered its lone loss of the season in five sets to conference powerhouse Wheatley on Sept. 28. But the Lady Vikings avenged that defeat almost three weeks later by handing the Lady Wildcats their only loss of the season through Wednesday. 

The pipeline of players coming from the JV team has never been greater. Savage noted the JV has had undefeated seasons in recent years and those players bring a winning mentality to the next level. The varsity team has not lost consecutive matches since Oct. 22 and 27 of 2014.

“The current seniors who were on JV had been on undefeated teams for three years,” Savage said. “They came up to us last year and we had an undefeated season, so for them, [Wheatley] was their first season loss. We practiced a lot after that game about what we didn’t do. They really tuned it up.”

Senior captains Melanie Cascio (setter) and Jaclyn Grzelaczyk (right-side hitter) were the lone holdovers from last year’s starting lineup. Cascio is averaging 14 assists a game and is one of the team’s top servers with 36 aces. 

“She is 100 percent all the time,” Savage said. “She’s an incredible athlete and pretty diverse. There have been times where I’ve pulled her back to receive a serve because she’s an outstanding passer.”

Grzelaczyk is another versatile player who uses her height advantage on both offense and defense. Against Island Trees on Oct. 19, she had eight kills, two blocks, five assists and four digs.

“If I ever have to take her off the court, I get a knot in my stomach because she’s super-smart,” Savage said.

Savage also noted strong contributions this season from outside hitter and captain Lilly Kolodinsky, as well as senior middle hitters Katrina Michels and Tracy McSorley. 

Seaford finishes the regular season with three matches this week and Savage wants to fine-tune each aspects of her team’s game over those matches with hopes of another deep postseason run.   

“We are just working on running plays and hitting more and we always take them back to defense,” she said. “Our focus right now is tough serving and tough serve receiving. Hopefully we go further this year.”