When Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK won its county championship last year, it did so in dramatic fashion, coming back from a two-set deficit.
This season, the group hadn’t dropped a set. And coming into its biggest matchup of the season, the Hawks displayed why they may be the team to beat.
Bella Sallie had 15 kills and six digs as Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK defeated host Massapequa, 25-22, 25-20, 25-19, in Nassau AAA-I girls volleyball on Monday night.
“Everyone heard about the big game tonight,” senior Dylan Katz said. “We knew it was going to be crazy. The crowd was going to be tough, but we knew we had what it took to pull it off.”
In the opening set, Savanna Appleton’s block, Victoria O’Neill’s kill and Lacey Petrullo’s ace put Massapequa ahead 22-21, giving the team its first advantage since it led 7-6. Katz earned a kill to tie it at 22, and the Hawks scored the final four points to take the set.
“We knew we had to have even more energy than we did against them last year,” Sallie said. “We knew we could win, but we knew how bad they wanted to win, too, so we had to come in with more power from the start.”
The Hawks (7-0) got out to a 7-2 lead after Jayden Axelrod’s kill in the second set. They earned their largest lead of the set after Addison Dove’s kill gave the Hawks a 10-3 advantage. Axelrod and Sallie each had four kills in the set and Dove finished with three kills.
Sallie’s kill gave the Hawks a 16-8 advantage in the third set, with their eight-point lead being the largest advantage of the match. Sallie and Dove each had three kills in the set and Emily Layton had an ace.
“We returned all our all-county players and these girls welcome the competition,” Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK coach Brianne Knight said. “They want to play the best teams, win and prove they are the best.”
Katz finished with seven kills, 16 assists and two aces. Axelrod had eight kills and 15 assists, Dove had seven kills and Layton had 14 digs. O’Neill had 11 kills for Massapequa (5-2).
The Hawks ended Massapequa’s streak of five consecutive county championships last season, coming back from dropping the first two sets to win the county final. Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK has won 21 straight sets to start the season and is hoping to advance even further this year.
“We want to be ever better than last year.” Sallie said.
“It’s basically the same team, same people,” Katz said. “We know what we have and we want to go as far as possible.”
Christopher Matias covers high school sports for Newsday after spending time in Athletic Facilities and Operation at St. John’s and in Sports Information at CUNY York college.
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