First
throughout. Long points were a common theme, with one such rally featuring a remarkable save by Mount.
The cramped confines of SK's old-school gym sometimes leads to unusual bounces off the various heating ducts located on the ceiling. A Rebel spike took a wild bounce in the air in the third game, smashing into the ceiling and dislodging a shuttlecock that had been lying dormant somewhere up above. Mount ignored the flying detritus, returned the ball and eventually won the point.
The pin-point outside hitting by SK proved to be the difference on the night. Trailing by four points for nearly all of Game 1, Mount could only watch as the set closed with SK's James Fagan blasting two spikes over and around Mount block attempts.
“It starts with our net play,” said D'Abate. “Whether it was bad coaching – ultimately it all comes back to me. If I didn't do a good enough job of prepping them at practice yesterday [it's on me].”
Mount got off to a strong start in Game 2, on well-struck balls from Mike DelliCarpini and Greg Lynch. With some crisper passing and stronger play by their front line players, Mount led consistently all the way up to 13-11.
SK briefly took over the pace of play from there, but Mount rallied back to take what looked to be a commanding 21-17 lead. Lynch and Thomas Cahaly, the two senior captains for Mount, collected kills that put their team four points away from tying the match.
The Rebel offense erupted to the tune of an 8-2 run, powered by sweltering hitting by Fagan and Bishop Hendricken transfer Jack Pincince.
Mount continued to perform up to their usual high standards only in spurts. They enjoyed early leads in Game 3, and never trailed by any more than five points at any point in the night. SK closed out each game with renewed vigor, and avenged their only loss on the season.
“In the grand scheme of things, it's Game 14,” said D'Abate. “We're going to try to keep getting better, do different things. I thought defensively, in the back row, we had a lot of great touches. We just couldn't convert them. Couldn't get them into our offense, where we were getting good swings. Maybe that's our hitters trying to ramp it up a little bit.”
The two teams have proven to be far and away the best squads in the state this season. Outside of the two matches they've played against each other, the two teams have won a combined 72 of the 80 sets they've contested this season.
All signs point to a potential rematch in the state final. D'Abate narrowed in on two crucial factors if the two teams were to square off again, this time on a neutral court.
“If we get to that point, if we get a chance to play them again, I think it's going to come down to the net play,” he said. “If we can do a good job at the net, and maybe not play as well as we did the first match, but better than we did tonight, I think we'll be okay.
“It's going to come down to that and SK’s fans travels really well. For a game in SK, middle of the school week, AP exams going on, we had a good turnout. I thought our fans were great tonight.”
Mount falls to 13-1, while SK improves to 14-1 following the showdown. The Mounties play three out of their final four regular season games on the road, before the start of the playoffs at the end of the month.