It was almost uncanny. Bronx Science was neck and neck with Cardozo in both sets. Regularly, the two teams went point for point. On paper, that sounds like a positive thing. But Science coach Jeremy Bass knew better.
“If we didn’t keep tying it up, keep going tit for tat with them, I thought it would affect us mentally,” he said.
He was right. No. 3 Cardozo was able to take slim leads late in both sets and No. 4 Bronx Science could never recover in a 25-21, 25-21 loss Thursday in the PSAL boys volleyball championship match at Hunter College. In the first set the Wolverines were within one when the points reached 20 and in the second, the set was tied.
“I think mentally if we had a lead of even more than one point, that might have gotten Cardozo a little flustered,” Bass said.
Instead, the Judges (17-0) were the pacesetters and edged the Wolverines (14-1) by a nose twice. Though all but two of two-time champion Cardozo’s starters had little experience coming into this season, it was the Judges that looked cool, calm and collected when they got to crunch time.
“You couldn’t tell that it was their first year in the starting lineup,” Bass said.
Senior outside hitter Arnold Situmeang had nine kills and senior middle Xavier Green had nine kills and four blocks. Neither started before this season and Green seemed to be the difference in the middle. Science had no answers for him.
“Dozo was clicking on all cylinders – they really established the middle,” Bass said. “I think that got into our heads a little bit that we couldn’t stop the middle.”
Science, which was making its first finals appearance since 1987, looked like the unstoppable team at times during the playoffs. The Wolverines played excellent in a quarterfinals win against Brooklyn Tech and knocked off top-seed McKee/Staten Island Tech in the semis Tuesday. The first set Thursday was their only set loss of the postseason. The senior group of Daniel Dworakowski, Dustin Lee, Ben Kim, Mike Sideris and Matthew Mo took Science to a place where it hasn’t been since the first year of PSAL boys volleyball.
“The guys won’t want to hear it now, but finishing second is definitely surpassing expectations,” Bass said. “We didn’t want to have that mentality coming in, like we’re just happy to be there. But now looking back it was a great season.”