DeWitt, N.Y. — As the point totals went up and the margin for error went down in the deciding fifth set of the Section III Class C girls volleyball championship game, LaFayette girls volleyball was in an eerily similar situation.
The past two seasons, the Lancers came back from two sets to none deficits to win sectional titles. Last year, they mounted a comeback against Bishop Grimes and took the fifth set, 15-13.
On Saturday evening, against a Bishop Ludden-Grimes team made up with half a dozen players from last year’s runner-up Cobra squad, the Lancers didn’t have to come back from down two sets or defend a match point like last November. But with the score tied 12-12 in the deciding fifth set, it was anybody’s game. Both teams were three points away from winning the match and the sectional title.
LaFayette (18-3) claimed the next three points to beat Bishop Ludden-Grimes (15-5) for the set, the match and a third straight trip to the state tournament, 25-21, 19-25, 25-19, 15-25, 15-12.
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11/8 - 5:00 PM Girls volleyball Final LaFayette 3 Bishop Ludden-Grimes 2
Was it deja vu?
“Oh, all over again,” Lancers libero Amelia Evans said. “This was crazy. I predicted it. I was like, they’re a really good team, I knew this was going to happen again. But I knew that the same outcome would happen. I was confident.”
Just like Evans, junior setter Ellie Booth saw the similarities. But she didn’t doubt the end result.
“I was definitely nervous, but I knew we could pull through and we could get it done like we did last year,” Booth said. “We always work well under pressure, and that’s what we did today.”
High School Girls Volleyball Section III Class C Sectional Final: Bishop Ludden-Grimes vs LaFayette
LaFayette won a see-saw first set. The Lancers ripped off 10 straight points to turn a 5-5 tie into a 15-5 lead, but though the Gaelic Knights got back to within a point four times, LaFayette held on to take it.
After the two teams traded the first 18 points of the second set, Bishop Ludden-Grimes surged in the second half of the set to win it comfortably. The third set went just as the second did, though this time it was LaFayette surging to take the set after an early 9-9 tie.
Bishop Ludden-Grimes controlled the fourth set, winning the first five points and cruising to win the most lopsided set of the night.
As the teams readied for the fifth set, a loud “Let’s go BLG” chant surrounded the court at Jamesville-DeWitt. Bishop Ludden-Grimes took the first three points, but LaFayette quickly tied it 4-4, and neither team went up by more than one point until the Lancers took an 11-9 lead on a Booth ace.
A “Let’s go Lancers” chant filled the gym, and LaFayette won the next point to go up 12-9. But Bishop Ludden-Grimes won the next two points to force a LaFayette timeout, and another “Let’s go BLG” chant flooded the stands.
“I was thinking, this cannot be my last volleyball game,” Evans said. “I was terrified, but I was ready for action.”
The Gaelic Knights won the next point to tie the fifth set at 12, but three straight points went into the net, and LaFayette’s bench mobbed its starters on the court to celebrate.
The Lancers move on to play Section IV champion Lansing at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Candor High School.
LaFayette fans are surely used to dramatic finishes now after three straight five-set sectional title wins. But they’ve all come under different coaches – this was first-year head coach Matt Fuller’s first taste of a championship five-setter.
How long will it take for his heart rate to return to normal?
“Maybe by next Saturday,” Fuller joked.
MORE GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
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