Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Mepham’s girls’ volleyball program made history Monday afternoon.
It took four sets for the Pirates to secure the Nassau Class AA championship in a revenge-match rematch of last year’s county title game against Long Beach, winning 25-21, 17-25, 25-17, 25-20.
“They just came together and played incredibly, supporting each other, never got down, had the momentum most of the game; blocking was outrageous, serve receive was best I’ve seen all year,” Mepham coach Tom Wildeman said.
Captains Sam Raikos (18 kills and 10 digs) and Makayla Daube (19 assists and 6 kills) led the way for the Pirates, who captured their first-ever county crown.
“Two really good teams, we split with them during the regular season so we knew it was going to be a really tough game, we knew that it was going to come down to five or four sets,” Long Beach coach Katherine Meyers said. “My girls played really well, I’m really proud of them.”
The first set proved to Mepham that Long Beach was beatable, with the Pirates cutting through their opponents’ defense almost immediately out of the gate, converting on-the-court miscommunications into free points. What made the points pile on was Mepham’s defense, anchored by senior libero Grace Brassill. The Long Beach offense, save for a couple of unreturnable serves, could not find its footing with Brassill in the way.
“Grace is such a good player, her serve-receive today was the best I’ve seen all year,” Wildeman said. “she did her homework, so [Grace] was reading the hitters, seeing the set, seeing their shoulders turn, and she’s just a really good defender.”
In the second set, however, the Marines wanted to write this story. Mepham’s Sam Bremer, who ended the evening with seven kills, four blocks and seven digs, said that she felt the team’s energy drop in the second set, leading to Long Beach evening the match at one set apiece. Franky DeCicco, Hayley Lipinski, Ivanka Priymak and Sara Biancamano led the way for the Marines.
“We told the girls from the beginning that this is an accomplishment just to be here, and they need to play not just for themselves but for their community and for their team,” Meyers said. “Once they realized that this is bigger than just them, they really focused on not as much nerves, and really focused on playing for their town and their school.”
It was a completely different conversation on the other side of the net.
“Just get back to covering, backing up our blockers and our hitters,” Wildeman said. “They got to put [the second set] behind them and they did.”
The vibe shift was subtle in the third and self-evident in the fourth. Mepham had a few long serves, but after that cooled down to walk away with the 25-17 third-set W, tightening loose ends from the mistakes of the second stanza.
Halfway through an intense fourth set, Mepham started to tip the scale in its direction with its serve-bump-hit-block routine translated to a five-point lead. Later, kills from Sam Bremer and Kailey Harrison put the Pirates in front 24-17. A few erroneous plays gave Long Beach hope when the set tightened to 24-20, put away by one final Mepham kill.
“It feels so good,” Bremer said. “We worked so all season and trained so hard; to finally get that win is so validating.”
