Wantagh Girls Volleyball Completes Perfect Regular Season

The Wantagh High School girls volleyball team overcame a 2-1 game deficit in its regular season finale to polish off conference rivals Bellmore-Kennedy in five games Thursday to head into the playoffs undefeated and as the top seed.

The win came before an enthusiastic home crowd, and against an opponent that has hung tough with the Warriors for at least three years now.

"Our two teams have a great rivalry, and to me, that keeps it fun and exciting," said Wantagh coach Kate Lux after the game. "Not everyone was on their A game today, but we were able to pick each other up. When we play together as a team, we play phenomenal."

"Volleyball's a game of momentum swings, and Wantagh did a good job of stopping our runs," said Kennedy Coach Allen Ma. "Both teams did. But we weren't able to stop that run in the fifth game."

Facing the only team that challenged them to any substantial degree this season, Wantagh was able to keep their rivals from getting 'payback' -- and staved off a possible "W' and tie for first place in the regular season standings -- winning games four and five handily for the match victory.

Like their last meeting on Oct. 5 , both squads showed moments of real dominance. Like last time, both teams ran off strings of points. And like last time, it came down to a fifth game, with Wantagh getting the last big run to take the victory.

Kennedy got off to a strong start, pulling up to a commanding 14-9 lead in game one before Wantagh climbed back into it on strong net work from Lauren Pennino and Nicole Kelly. Before Kennedy could blink, things were knotted up at 16-16, 18-18 and 19-19.

But then the Lady Cougars rode on the back of a strong series of services from Sam Sagendorph and Taylor Krug -- coupled with four ringing kills from Stephanie Bauman. It remained for Heather Hulkower to set Keri Stalzer for a kill to make it 24-21, and a rattling kill of her own to seal the win in game 1, 25-22.

Wantagh picked itself up off the court in game two, however, and made it a contest. Pennino was good for three kills at the net, and served up a couple of points from the line, and and it was 17-8. Kennedy lost its rhythm at that point, and didn't seem to find its feet again until it was 23-14, and a strong set of serves from Stalzer to get it to 23-18 wasn't enough to keep Wantagh from taking game two.