Fieldston’s Arianna Francis had five services, including a huge one late in the third set. (Denis Gostev)
It’s almost like Fieldston has increased the level of difficulty as much as it can the last few weeks.
Spotting Poly Prep two sets before coming back to preserve an undefeated Ivy League season? That’s nothing.
Scoring 11 straight points in the third set to come back against Chapin in the NYSAISAA semifinals? Child’s play.
On Sunday, the Eagles pulled off their best Houdini act yet with the stakes the highest.
Facing set point in the pivotal third against powerful top seed Brearley, No. 2 Fieldston came all the way back to win that set and eventually stun the visiting Beavers, 29-27, 17-25, 27-25, 25-22, in the NYSAISAA girls volleyball championship match in The Bronx. The Eagles (13-0) won the title for the first time since 2002.
“Some people play people well under pressure and some people choke,” Fieldston senior middle hitter Natasha Trepel said. “We play well under pressure. When we’re not in a pressure situation, we play down.”
Collin Henry, Fieldston’s coach, laughed when asked about his team’s propensity for coming back. When he realized it was such a strength, he said, he began actually running drills in practice that involved coming from behind. The Chapin match, though, was a new level for him, down 22-14 only to close out the set, 25-22.
“You don’t give a team 11 points and just come back,” Henry said with a laugh. “What are you trying to do, make a team look bad? You can’t do that.”
Brearley (13-1), too, seemed to be in the driver’s seat on Sunday. The Beavers were up 24-21, about to take a 2-1 advantage in sets. But Fieldston’s Catalina Jimenez had a kill and a block, Arianna Francis crushed a service ace and the set finished when Brearley star outside hitter Mary Claire Bartlett hit long.
“We know that if we win that game, the rest is ours,” Francis said. “We know we can keep pushing forward. We know that moment was so critical.”
Brearley coach Doug Levine agreed with its importance. That might have been the match.
“We had every possible opportunity to do what we needed to do and we didn’t do it,” he said. “Fieldston played great. They did what they needed to do.”
The Eagles, believe it or not, actually led throughout the fourth set to seal the match. Francis fittingly finished it with a kill off a Brearley block. The junior outside hitter had 13 kills and seven aces, Jimenez chipped in with five kills and three blocks and lefty Lisa Slivken added seven kills. Lauren Weston had 28 assists.
It was a group effort. Brearley depends on Catherine Egan (18 kills, five blocks), who was superb, and Bartlett (15 kill) to finish sets from Funmi Adejobi (35 assists). Fieldston was more well-rounded.
“All our points are spread out all over the place,” Henry said. “So we don’t have to worry about the difficult of trying to force it to our best hitter. We have a lot of players who can put the ball over.”
His senior group, led by Trepel and Weston, was adamant about winning the crown. Fieldston had not even gotten this far since 2003. And the Eagles did everything in their power – everyone played club and the team trained with Henry at a camp in Buffalo in August – to make sure the trophy would be theirs.
“It means the world to me,” Weston said. “Honestly, this is a dream come true. We worked so hard for it. There was no way we weren’t going to win. We had to win.”
Even if it meant coming back time after time after time to do it.
“We’re not good at getting a lead, but we’re good at getting it back,” Trepel said. “Everyone realizes how important this is.”