Sports

Seaford Girls Volleyball Falls in Semifinals

Lady Vikings drop five-set heartbreaker to top-seeded Floral Park.

Coming into the 2010 season girls volleyball head coach Marie Jones Savage never envisioned her young team made up mainly of sophomores would make the Nassau County semifinals, but that is just the position the Vikings were in Saturday afternoon against Floral Park. The fighting spirit displayed by Seaford all season long was on full display against the top-seeded team in Class B, but the magical run eventually came to an end in a five-set heartbreaking loss.

"They have grown so much this season." said Coach Savage moments after her team's five-set loss by scores of 25-12, 21-25, 25-18, 13-25 and 25-22 at Herricks High School in New Hyde Park. "I'm proud of the way they played."

Seaford, which handed Floral Park (12-2) one of its two losses this season in a five-set win on Oct. 29, appeared to be in trouble early after dropping the first set 25-12 and dropping 10 of the game's final 11 points. However thanks in large part to the leadership of senior captain Jennifer Sullivan the Vikings regrouped to win a hard-fought second set and stay in the match until the very end. In the deciding game Seaford held an early 11-6 lead but Floral Park put together a rally and won some clutch points down the stretch to ice the match.

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A big reason why Floral Park was able to end Seaford's season was the play of the Knight's tallest player Harley Pietroforte, who was a towering force at the net all game long and finished with 10 kills and five blocks. Floral Park will play in the Nassau County Class B Finals at C.W Post on Tuesday.

"They stated off slow but came back fighting really hard," said Savage of her team's effort after dropping the first set. "I'm proud of the way they played."

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