The Boys & Girls players allowed overconfidence to creep in, and it cost them.
The second-seeded Kangaroos were just three points away from closing out No. 4 Metropolitan Campus in the second set and celebrating a city championship. Expecting victory instead of seizing it, Boys & Girls let the set and the title slip away.
“We got a little bit to loose,” said Kangaroos coach Leroy White. “We let them come back, we figured the three points would be ours. We let that game get away from us.”
Metropolitan scored eight-straight points to win the second set, and held off Boys & Girls in the final frame to win 23–25, 25–22, 25–20, in the Public School Athletic League Class B city final at Hunter College on May 27. The Kangaroos carried the shock of dropping the second set into the third, and it showed.
“The guys were hoping we would do it in two and sweep, but when they got to the third round they were agitated they had to work a little more,” White said.
Metropolitan (12–2), which finished second in its division, ran into problems in the third set. The Knights led 18–9 before Boys & Girls (15–1) went on a 10–2 rally to cut the lead to 20–19. Bryan Vasquez responded with a kill to increase the Knights’ lead to 21–19. Tishawn Doolittle, who had 12 kills, made some big plays down the stretch to help Metropolitan wrap up the final set 25–20.
The Knights learned from seeing Boys & Girls faltering down the stretch of the second set. They weren’t going to let that happen to them.
“I told them when we were up big, ‘Hey listen, I see you think we got this and you are relaxing,’ ” said Metropolitan coach Thomas Shean. “ ‘But remember the other team thought they had the match just before and they relaxed, so play hard.’ ”
Down 16–11 in the first set, Boys & Girls rallied to go ahead 24–23 behind the play of Donte Myers. Metropolitan hit the next ball out to secure the Kangaroos win of the first set. The play of Marlon Glynn and Olivier Gaussaint put Boy & Girls in a great position to close out the championship, but then the wheels started to come off.
The Kangaroos kept fighting, but the end result didn’t go their way.
“It was a test of who can come out and play the best volleyball,” White said. “We did our best. We stuck together. We didn’t lose faith unless that last ball hit the floor.”
