(Middletown, NY) - They could play Volleyball for the next 100 years ar Westchester Community College and never have another night like this one: Two matches. 10 sets. Five hours. Hundreds of rallies. Dozens of points. Too many highs and lows to count. But when the final ball in play of the night landed ever so convincingly on the Orange Community College Gymnasium floor, only one thing mattered:

Westchester Community College is the 2018 Mid-Hudson Conference Volleyball Champions.

By any common measure, winning a conference championship is the achievement of an athletic lifetime. But, the 2018 edition of Westchester CC Women's Volleyball achieved championship greatness by being simply uncommon. One year ago, they finished 7-13 under first-year Head Coach Taneisha Cantave. A year later and wiser, the Vikings won their seventh match long before September ended. Rockland Community College, the defending Mid-Hudson Conference Champions, briskly swept WCC to open the season on Tuesday, Sept. 11. That would prove to be the last time this year that Rockland would beat Westchester as the teams battled each other two more times.

And while a seven-win season might leave many programs with more questions than answers, for WCC the punctuation became exclamation points as the Vikings left Orange CC on Tuesday night with a Championship Trophy, and a 15-7 record to go with it.

For Westchester CC, Tuesday night was exhilarating. It was emotional. It was exhausting. 

But, it was not easy.
 
Westchester's Semifinal Round victory over #3 Rockland Community College was a classic in itself. Unforced errors plagued WCC during the first set as Rockland held on for a 25-21 win. Westchester rebounded to win the second set, 25-19, before falling 22-25 in the third set. The Vikings' 25-20 win in the fourth set led to a a deciding set five where WCC left no doubt, storming out to a 7-1 lead and never looked back, winning 15-11.

Sophomore Madison Young (Hartsdale, NY/Woodlands) saved arguably her best match of the 2018 season for the moment the Vikings needed it the most. She left Rockland in a position where the Hawks had no answer for her. Young finished the match with 22 kills, five digs, and three solo blocks ... to go with an incredible .833 attack percentage, and two service aces. Sophomore Taylor Mello (Cortlandt Manor, NY/Woodlands HS) was tremendous, finishing with 10 kills, six service aces, and four digs, while sophomore Lindsay Leggio (Mahopac, NY/Mahopac HS) enjoyed another fine match with 36 assists, eight service aces, and four digs.

The win set up the match of the year against top-seeded Orange Community College that will likely be remembered as one of the most exciting matches in Mid-Hudson Conference history. 

The Colts opened play with a 25-18 win, and appeared to be in complete control when they jumped out to a 23-19 lead in the second set. However, during a season full of big rallies, the Vikings were up to the task, scoring six consecutive points for the 25-23 win to tie the match 1-1. After Orange took a 2-1 lead after a 25-19 win in the third set, Westchester rebounded to win the fourth set 25-20 to set up a winner-take-all deciding fifth set.

And boy was it exciting. At one point, the race to 15 points was tied 10-10. But, in the end, the resiliency displayed by WCC all season long held out, and Westchester earned their first Mid-Hudson Conference Championship since 2001 with a 15-12 win, and a wild celebration ensued. 

While the 'usual suspects' performed tremendously, it was two Vikings who have been used in a support role for much of the season who stepped up to lead WCC to victory. Freshman Melody Pabon (Bronx, NY/Celia Cruz) turned in the best match of her career, just missing a double-double with nine kills, 11 digs, and two blocks. Additionally, freshman Jurnee Reid (Sleepy Hollow, NY/Ossining HS) added two assists, four digs, and her five service aces provided Westchester with a huge lift.

Also for the Vikings, sophomore Mello notched a double-double with 12 kills, 13 digs, and four service aces, Young registered a team-high 20 kills to go with two digs and two solo blocks, and Leggio had 38 assists to go with two kills and four digs.

It was one of the longest nights of volleyball in Westchester Community College history ... but also one of the best.

From here, the Vikings will not be given much time to rest as Westchester enters the NJCAA Region XV Championship Tournament for the first time since the 2016 season. The seventh-seeded Vikings travel to face second-seeded Nassau Community College on Thursday, Oct. 25 at 7:00 p.m.