Columbia falls short of final
The cheers echoed around the Capital Center on Saturday morning and the volleyball players on the court from Columbia basked in every moment. The Blue Devils, a program without a sectional title prior to this fall, found themselves competing against two of the finest Division I programs at the state championships.
Throughout both of its matches against Smithtown West and Penfield, Columbia produced some crowd-pleasing moments for its fans. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils in their first foray at the highest of state competition, there simply were not enough sustained moments of excellence.
Columbia finished 1-3 in pool play and failed to advance to the final eventually won by Penfield later in the day with a 3-1 victory over Smithtown West. First-year coach Tyler Rose, like his charges, was disappointed by the results in pool play and pleased with the overall experience from the season.
“This was an unbelievable journey this group had,” Rose said. “This was a talented team. We didn’t know how well or far things would go. To be sectional champs, regional champs and be 20-1 going into the state tournament is quite an accomplishment. We’re very proud of that. It was an awesome experience. I would say with today it wasn’t our best day, but I am very happy with this group and how they played this year.”
“I am so glad I got to play with the team this year. It is such a good group of guys,” said Columbia senior outside hitter Carter Durivage, who missed the end of his junior season during the spring because of injury. “I think we really showed what Columbia
is all about. We never won a sectional title. We won our first. We won our first regional game and we won our second regional game. We got to the state tournament. I think everyone in our district was impressed by that alone. Obviously, it wasn’t the ending we were expecting, but I think we competed against these top teams and showed our name.”
“I think we’ve really put Columbia on the map,” Columbia junior outside hitter Henry Heeps said. “It has been for this community and having all these fans come out. It really makes us feel great.”
It was evident in the opening set of the day against Smithtown East the Blue Devils battled nerves. At the same time, the Blue Devils fed off the energy provided by their fans.
“That definitely fueled us,” Durivage said of the strong fan support. “We were underdogs going in. These teams are in the state championship every other year. They haven’t heard of Columbia before. The crowd we got was impressive and it was exciting with them all there.”
Smithtown West won the first set against Columbia 25-20. The second set saw several momentum shifts.
Ultimately, each team had game points. The Blue Devils ended up getting swept with a 27-25 setback in the second set.
“There were highs and lows. You knew coming in there would be good moments and tough moments,” Rose said. “We went back and forth and couldn’t get over the hump.”
“I think we kind of shot ourselves in the foot. We had too many errors,” Heeps said.
Columbia dropped the first set against Penfield and bounced back to take the second set against the Section V champions.
“We couldn’t seem to keep the ball on our side for serving runs,” said Durivage, who finished the day with 19 kills and 16 digs. “They knew we were a legit team and I’m glad we got there and put up some good competition.”
“It just seemed we never could get that point we needed. We were close, but just not there,” Rose said. “It was a great opportunity for us. Not our best performance, but we are certainly happy about our accomplishments this year.”