Carey-Jean Block leads Seaford girls to Long Island Class B title

Carey-Jean Block remembers it like it was yesterday partially because it feels like it. There she was in Glens Falls, a little more than a decade ago, watching her mom — Kellie Block — coach the Lindenhurst girls volleyball team in the state championship tournament.

Now, Carey-Jean will be going back as a player. Block had 34 kills and 34 digs in Seaford’s dramatic 3-2 victory over Bayport–Blue Point in the Long Island Class B championship Friday afternoon at Hauppauge. Seaford will advance to the state championships, scheduled for Nov. 19-20 at Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls.

“From being a little kid in the stands, cheering on my mom to playing … this was a big goal for me,” Block said.

Seaford fought back from 6-3, 13-12, and 15-14 deficits to win 17-15 in the fifth and final set, where the first team to get to 15 (or in this case, win by two after getting to 15) wins the match. Fittingly, it was Block whose kill sent Seaford upstate.

“Going up to swing in the final point, I knew I was going to kill it,” Block said. “I knew I had the mentality that I was going to put it away. Because, if we don’t, then they have just another opportunity to score. I knew they’d take advantage of that.”

Danielle McHugh had 41 digs, Sarah Lochner had 16 kills, Natalie Masters had 24 assists, and Kailly Nocera had 20 assists in the 24-26, 25-22, 25-17, 19-25, 17-15 win that gave Seaford its first Long Island title since 2019.

The Vikings jumped to a  2-1 lead after a comeback win in the second set and a more in-control one in the third.

“We put the ball away on almost every single chance,” Block said, “We had a lot less errors.”

In the fourth, the Phantoms turned a 16-13 lead, into a 22-16 advantage that led to a 25-20 win.

“We knew we had to get that ball to the floor so they couldn’t get it up,” McHugh said of the Seaford strategy going into the fifth set. “We knew we had to hit hard and look at the spots. Me in the back row, I knew I was going line when the outside was hitting. We knew the spots. We knew what to do.”

A comeback in the opening set that fell short — one that saw it down 19-10 and pull ahead 24-23 before losing three consecutive points set up the rest of the match. Yes, they were down and yes, it was annoying — but they had shown that they could play with Bayport–Blue Point and that was all that mattered.

“We were very fired up,” Block said. “Maybe we lost, but that energy carried right over into the rest of the sets because we wanted to win.”

The mindset came in handy when Seaford was down 10-6 and 11-7 midway through the second set, only to bounce back to take a 20-18 lead and fight toward a 25-22 win.

“We got a little down in (set) one,” McHugh said. “But, we knew we were capable of beating them. So, we picked our heads up and dug in.”