Massapequa boys volleyball regroups to down Syosset in Nassau Div. I final
Massapequa boys volleyball players rejoice after 3-1 win over Syosset in the Nassau Division I final at Farmingdale State on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. Credit: James Escher
On the way towards Nassau boys volleyball supremacy, Massapequa always remembered to forget. That can be an important thing over the course of an unblemished season. Things happen and, sometimes, those things are bad. The quicker a team lets those bad things go, the sooner good things happen.
One of those bad things happened Tuesday night, when Massapequa dropped the second set of their Nassau Division I championship match to Syosset. They responded the only way they know how, by forgetting about it and rolling off two straight victories to top Syosset 3-1 at Farmingdale State and bring home their fourth consecutive county championship.
“We talk a lot about ‘so what, now what?’ ” Massapequa coach Elissa DiSalvo said of the 25-17, 22-25, 25-20, 25-19 win. “In our game, every point is worth the same value. There’s no three pointers, free throws, or things like that. Everything’s worth one point. So, you have to take it one at a time. And, they truly believe ‘one at a time.’ You play a bunch of minigames to one. You win 75 of them and you win.”
DiSalvo continued: “After set 2, we just said ‘so what, now what?’ Move on. We call it fog. Everything that happened in the past is all fog.”
That fog has cleared toward a Long Island championship bid. Having completed their successful sweep of the Nassau landscape, Massapequa (18-0) will face Suffolk champ Connetquot at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Long Island Division I championship at Farmingdale State.
“Our goal this year was to not lose a game on Long Island,” said senior Jack Schiffl. “Right now, we have that goal going.”
A generally evenly matched contest turned decidedly in Massapequa’s favor halfway through the fourth and final set. Massapequa turned a 14-10 lead into a 19-12 advantage after Tristan Rezza and Patrick Radomski combined for an earth-shattering block.
The lead extended to 20-15 and 22-17 as Massapequa inched closer to yet another victory. Schiffl slammed down the final kill that put the championship on record.
“It was a moment of realization that ‘we’re up and we can really take the game away from them quickly and win,' ” Radomski said of the final moments.
Unforgettable.
