GLENS FALLS – Written on an index card were the words, “Defend our title.” Those words were put down on the card by Bainbridge-Guilford’s head coach Tami Selfridge prior to the start of the 2018 season as a goal for the Bobcats Volleyball team.
Sunday, needing one final point, the Bobcats’ Erica Selfridge delivered the serve over the net. After three hits set up a spike for Panama, B-G’s Marissa Cuozzo was there for the backline pass to Erica. The sophomore then made a set in the air for her sister, Abi Selfridge, who sent the kill attempt at the Panthers.
The Panthers’ Madalyn Bowen went up with two hands for the block. The ball deflected off her arms and landed out of bounds, giving the Bobcats a sweep over the Panama Panthers and their second straight New York State Class D Championship.
“It feels awesome,” said Selfridge (as she began to show emotion following the win.) “We all wanted it so badly. We just had to focus on just one point at a time. The girls came out and they played awesome. We played awesome last year at the state championship match and we did it again this year. I’m just super proud of them.”
The Bobcats saw Panama in the finals for the second year in a row. The two teams battled in a four set finals a year ago with B-G coming out on top 3-1. This year, Selfridge knew that it was going to be the same type of battle with them just in Saturday’s pool play action.
Match one: The Mayfield Eagles
First, the Bobcats had to face Mayfield from Section II.
Mayfield jumped out to an early lead as it appeared that the Bobcats nerves were on display for the first few points of the team.
Shaking off the butterflies, B-G put together a run to capture the lead and extend it out to 10-5. The Bobcats continued to hold their advantage, reaching a score of 17-10 before closing out the first of two games, 25-12.
The second set started nearly the same as the first with Mayfield taking the first lead at 3-1. Bainbridge-Guilford quickly closed the margin and took control of the match at 4-3 and didn’t lose the advantage again.
Mayfield did close the Bobcats lead down to two points at one time in the set but B-G grew their lead to 17-12 before ending the match at 25-19 to go up in pool play 2-0.
Match two: The Mount Academy Eagles
Next on the schedule for Bainbridge-Guilford was the Mount Academy Eagles out of Section IX. The Eagles volleyball program for the small school made their debut just this season.
Mount Academy took the floor against Panama first and delivered quite a scare for the 2017 runners-up. The first set between the two teams was a long-fought set with Panama taking the 1-0 lead by winning the game 25-22.
The second game went back and forth as well. At one point in the set, Mount Academy led 18-17. The Panthers battled back to take game two 25-21 to also go 2-0 to start pool play.
The Eagles stayed on the court to face the defending champs for the next to games played in Class D.
Bainbridge-Guilford started the first game with a lead of 8-3 as they were led by the hard swings from Erica Selfridge for the kill points and Zamira Caldwell, who was controlling the net defensively as she made back-to-back block attempts work for the Bobcats.
Mount Academy battled back to close the lead down to one point (12-11) before tying B-G at 15-15. Keeping the set close for the reminder of play, Abi Selfridge was set up by sister Erica for the kill and she placed the ball just inside the back baseline for the 25-20 win.
What happened next wasn’t something anyone was expecting.
The second set was a fight throughout, as nearly every run was matched by the opposing team. Marissa Cuozzo of the Bobcats helped her team gain a 10-5 lead but the Eagles climbed back into the set to trail 12-11.
Bainbridge-Guilford countered, going on a run to take jump out ahead 16-12 however the Eagles weren’t going away anytime soon. Setting up yet another rally, Mount Academy closed down the Bobcats’ lead to tie the match at 16-16.
Prior to the weekend, Coach Selfridge said the one aspect of B-G’s game that could hurt them were their serves. She was right.
As the second set neared the end, the Bobcats’ serves began to struggle. The Eagles took full advantage, taking a lead at 22-21 before holding on to take the game 25-23.
When asked about Mount Academy following the match, Coach Selfridge said, “[Mount Academy] was difficult to play. They played an unconventional game and struggled with sets but they found a way to make it work. They dug and hit extremely well. Get them a good setter and they would be tough to stop.”
Match three: The Panama Panthers
After their two-set match was done with Mount Academy, the Bobcats faced Panama – who was also 3-1 after Mayfield took the first game in an upset, 29-27.
All Bainbridge-Guilford needed was to win one set of the two against the Panthers to move into Sunday’s championship.
The Bobcats took an early lead over Panama and extended the score to 10-5. However, the Panthers weren’t going to go away quietly.
Panama responded to B-G’s early set run with one of their own to trail 14-13. A few points later, the Panthers took the lead at 16-14.
Bainbridge-Guilford came clawing back, tying the first set at 19-19. The game tied again at 22-22 and at 23-23.
A rocket of a spike by Abi Selfridge gave the Bobcats a 24-23 lead and the serve. B-G’s Alexis Carr sent her serve short, just getting over the net. The ball landed on the Panama side to give Bainbridge-Guilford the 25-23 win, putting them one step closer to a repeat as state champions.
Following the first set victory, a sense of relief was displayed by the Bobcats.
Panama won the second set and both Bainbridge-Guilford and the Panthers ended their Saturday pool play with a record of 4-2. As both teams had four wins, the coaches knew at the conclusion of their match they would be seeing each other in the finals once again.
“The level of play at today’s pool play portion of the state tournament seemed higher than last year,” said Selfridge at the end of day one. “While I know we could have played better at times, I am proud of how we held it together. We were focused on finishing in the top two so that we could compete in the championships.
“We are hoping to clean up some things and would love to bring back another state championship to [Bainbridge-Guilford].”
A rematch for the title
B-G and Panama returned to the court the next morning at 10 a.m. with the best-of-five winner taking home the championship.
The Bobcats came out strong in the first set as the hits were hard and the Panthers weren’t quite ready for the fast balls coming their way.
Early in the match, Bainbridge-Guilford took a 10-5 lead. Panama, however, came alive and closed down the Bobcats advantage to three points.
As both teams were leaving everything on the floor, the volleys become longer and longer. The winning point in the volleys went to the team that forced their opponent into an error.
One rally between the two teams lasted for nearly two minutes. It was first kept alive by a B-G block on a kill attempt from the Panthers and later ended by Abi Selfridge sending a spike inside the baseline for the point. Her kill gave the Bobcats the 15-8 lead, making the Panama head coach use one of her two timeouts allowed.
The timeout worked for the Panthers as they came storming back to bring tie the score.
Bainbridge-Guilford’s defensive play at the net came up big for them as two blocks – one by Erica Selfridge and another by Carr – helped them regain the lead and hold on for the first set win. Teammate Caldwell closed the game out with a hard swing over the net and Panama was unable to make a play on the ball as the Bobcats went up 1-0 in the match.
Game two of the match started with Bainbridge-Guilford up 3-0 but the Panthers tied the score at 3-3. Coach Selfridge called an early timeout, hoping to gather her girls and bring them back into the game.
“Typically, the way to stop a run is to call a timeout and regroup a little bit but we had to play the second half of that game with no timeouts,” said Selfridge. She said that timeouts are always a tricky part of a game strategy. “It’s a gut-feel. I felt like we needed to regroup and get back in the game.”
It worked as the Bobcats took back the serve and rallied for the 11-4 lead. B-G’s Leah Gregory held the serve during the eight point run before the Panthers’ Kylie Schnars’ blocked ended it.
Panama began a comeback effort once again. With the score at 14-10, Coach Selfridge was forced to call her final timeout of the second set.
A few points following the timeout, the Panthers took their first lead of the match at 16-15. As she was out of timeouts, Coach Selfridge had to rely on the girls on the floor to regroup.
“At that point, the leaders on the floor become super important,” said Selfridge. “They have to do it for themselves. One of our middle’s [hitters] was struggling and I looked to Abi [Selfridge] on the floor and said, ‘You have to get her head back into the game.’ Abi then did her little timeout on the floor and it worked.”
After Panama led 17-15, the Bobcats rallied back to capture the advantage at 20-17. Allowing the Panthers to score just one more point in the set, Bainbridge-Guilford took a 25-18 win to lead two games in the match.
Needing just one more set win to repeat as champions, the Bobcats came out firing. Bainbridge-Guilford built a 6-1 lead early in the third game but couldn’t count out the Panthers just yet.
In the third set, Erica Selfridge was a hard hitting machine as four points were won by the sophomore. Also coming up with big at the net defensive was Caldwell, who got a tip or the clear block on several points for the Bobcats.
Bainbridge-Guilford’s lead was extended to 15-5 before Panama’s head coach called their final timeout of the match. The Bobcats needed just 10 points to win their second straight title but the Panthers weren’t going down without a fight.
Panama made a run to 16-11 before Coach Selfridge called her first timeout of the set. The Bobcats clung to their lead but out of the break, Panama continued to chip away.
With the score at 17-13, Erica Selfridge fired home a kill to gain the serve back for B-G. The Bobcats added to their lead, making the score 23-16 after a double hit by the Panthers.
However, Panama responded as they collected several points, putting pressure on Bainbridge-Guilford. The Panthers inched their way back to a 23-19 score but the Bobcats’ regained the serve. Bainbridge-Guilford then closed out the match with Abi’s spike.
“It feels amazing,” said Abi after the match. “It feels twice as good. It’s an incredible feeling. It took a lot of hard work a lot of effort. I’m so proud of my team.”
“We brought it together, as a team and as a family – every single point out there. We played great. It was the best game we played all season.”
Abi Selfridge was named the New York State Class D Tournament Most Valuable Player while Erica and Caldwell were named as All-Tournament team members.
Coach Selfridge said the win was a true team effort by not only the girls that were on the court but the players cheering on the sideline. It was what she wanted from the very beginning of the season.
“I didn’t go very deep in the championship but it’s all about the practices before the games and stuff like that,” said Coach Selfridge. “After I brought girls up from our JV team, our practices were just so much at a higher level than they had been at in the past. We really count on them to keep our level of intensity up.
“The bench is also super important a game like this,” Coach Selfridge continued. “Energy levels are huge. When girls go in and out, we have to have girls on the sideline to keep them encouraged. We have that and it’s great.”
The Bobcats were welcomed back into Bainbridge with a parade of fire trucks. Last year’s state championship was recognized with signs on the way into town. The village will be adding another sign for the 2018 team.