GLENS FALLS – A 33-second volley in the fourth set is what it took for the Lady Bobcats to bring the Class D New York State Volleyball championship to Bainbridge-Guilford for the first time in school history.
With B-G’s Marissa Cuozzo serving to the Panama Panthers at 24-12, all Bainbridge-Guilford needed was one final point to take down the defending state champs. Panama sent the ball flying hard back over the net, hoping to finish the point to get the serve back to close the 12-point gap.
But the Bobcats’ Erica Selfridge refused as she saved her team with the first dig, keeping the point going. Teammate Zamira Caldwell tried to catch Panama off guard by tipping the ball over. However, the Panthers weren’t fooled and set up a spike as they again tried to close the point.
That’s when Abi Selfridge dove for the ball, reached her hands out for the dig, and saved the point.
Enter Alexis Carr into the play. She used Erica Selfridge’s perfect set and smacked the ball over the net, forcing the Panther player to mishit the ball out of bounds, thus crowning the Lady Bobcats as the Class D State Champs.
“It feels incredible,” said Abi Selfridge on being a state champ. “Our team worked really hard to get to this point. I can’t thank the coaching staff and my team enough for all the long hours and effort it took to get us this far. My team really stepped up our play this weekend and it definitely paid off.”
After a long day of pool play on Saturday, the Bobcats came out as the second place team of the four that were playing for the Class D Title.
Bainbridge-Guilford started out Saturday against the Argyle Scots of Section II. They split the games with the Scots, taking the first game by a close margin of 25-23. The Bobcats grabbed the game two win with a final score of 25-21. That left both teams at 1-1 going into their next games.
“I think we were all just trying to figure out where we had to be,” said head coach Tami Selfridge. “The arena itself is loud with fans cheering as there were one or two other games going on.
“We have played in a lot of high-level games against a number of high-level teams this season, but this weekend seemed to have bigger stakes. It definitely took some time to adjust.”
B-G then faced Tuxedo of Section IX, where the Bobcats straight out dominated the two games, winning 25-7 and 25-10.
Heading into the last matchup of the night for Bainbridge-Guilford in pool play, which was against the Panthers, the standings after four games were: Panama 4-0, Bainbridge-Guilford 3-1, Argyle 3-1 and Tuxedo 0-4.
If Bainbridge-Guilford won one of the two or both against Panama, they would have locked one of the top two spots, landing them in Sunday’s final match.
But the Panthers had been in the position before. Knowing what it took to get to that finals match, Panama took down the Bobcats in two close games, 25-17 and 25-21, securing themselves the first spot in the finals.
Bainbridge-Guilford had to wait for the contest between Tuxedo and Argyle, hoping that Tuxedo could snag one game, allowing the Bobcats to slide into the second spot in Sunday’s final.
Argyle grabbed wins in both games (25-18 and 26-24), forcing a tie-breaker.
The tie-breaker match is a one set match to 25, with the win-by-two rule in effect for a close match.
