Wildcats Finally Cross Regional Bridge
Great Bridge continued its perfect season Saturday with a win over First Colonial in the Eastern Region finals. Photo by Jason Norman
With his team 25 points from the Eastern Region title on Saturday at Tallwood, Ryan Iaquinto got his team's attention.
Perhaps he was thinking about the three years that his Great Bridge squad had fallen short of the regional title, including last year, when the Wildcats lost just one match in the regular season, then fell to Cox in the regional final.
Maybe he was going back over the 2009 year, when Bridge had roared out of the gates, all the way to a 23-0 record, including defeats of Maury and Princess Anne in the regional tourney.
Chances are, he touched on the First Colonial squad that had beaten Bridge in the first game of the final - though Bridge had lost just two sets all season, one of them had come in an Oct 3 victory over the Patriots. This, along with Colonial's perfect record in the Beach District, showed that the Patriots weren't going to lay down and let Bridge walk off with its first regional championship since 2002.
Any way he looked, Iaquinto knew there was just one thing to say.
"We're not going to lose this game!" the senior Wildcat vowed. "We're going to take it to them." Over the next few minutes, the team brought his words to action, roaring off to a 12-7 lead and never letting Colonial close in a 25-13 victory, finishing off a 21-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-13 title-taking torrent.
"In the huddles, I'm sort of a motivational speaker," said Iaquinto, one of several seniors on the Bridge squad. "At that point, we smelled blood in the water. We didn't want to lose another game."
After neither team got ahead by more than two for the first few minutes of the opening game, Sam Berannan smacked his second kill in three points to give Colonial a 22-19 lead. His subsequent serve hit the net, but the Patriots got the ball right back, and Chase Holderby blasted his third kill of the game to up the lead to 23-21. Eric Larsson served for one Patriot point, then clobbered an ace to give Colonial the first game.
Between games, Bridge coach Dave Albaugh remembered, "We said, win or lose, we're going to play hard. We're at regionals, and we're not going to lose by playing soft. We're going to lose by playing hard. If they block us, they block us, and if they don't, they don't. We needed to attack the net, and we did, and that changed the whole face of the game."
After more nip-tuck action in the second, Iaquinto, Alec Smith, Tim Fitzpatrick, and Shane Popelka whacked four kills in six plays to give Bridge a 21-16 lead. An ace from Brennan got Colonial to 21-19, and Fitzpatrick knocked a kill out of bounds as the scored tied a 21. Iaquinto got Bridge possession with a kill, and Popelka served for three quick points and a 24-22 lead. Colonial got possession back when Iaquinto's next kill attempt landed outside the line, but a double-touch penalty gave Bridge the game-winning point.
The Patriots raced to a 17-9 lead in game three, and Stuart Taliaferro served another point for a 19-13 lead. His next serve hit the next, and Fitzpatrick banged home two straight aces to get to 19-16.
After a timeout, Colonial got to 21-17, but Smith hammered a kill, and Popelka faked out the Patriot defense by tipping a shot into the center of the Patriot court. Ryan Stallard knocked a kill to get the Patriots possession, but one from Smith sent it right back to Bridge.
Both teams lost a point for touching the net, and Bridge got possession with the score tied at 23. Popelka got his second kill of the game, and a Holderby kill went out of Bounds to put the Wildcats one win from victory.
After Iaquinto's pep talk, Fitzpatrick knocked over two aces for a 6-2 lead. After a rally, Adam McKee tipped in another Bridge point, then served for five straight scores and a 16-7 lead.
Things went back and forth, and Iaquinto knocked a kill out of bounds, but made up for it on the next play by tipping another point for a 21-13 lead. An ace from Fitzpatrick got Bridge another point, and Iaquinto batted down a Holderby kill attempt for a 24-13 lead.
Down to his last point, Fitzpatrick bounced a shot off a pair of Patriot defenders, ending the game and the tournament.
"I couldn't believe it," said Fitzpatrick, whose four aces led the match (Popelka led the day with eight kills, one more than Iaquinto and Holderby). "We'd finally come back and accomplished what we'd wanted to do. We wanted to get back to regionals and win it. We all look forward to practice every day. All of us have looked forward to coming every day."
Both teams go to Virginia Commonwealth University for state games next week, with Bridge opening things against Cosby and Colonial facing Clover Hill.
"The coaches told us when we were freshmen that we would have a couple of rough years," Iaquinto said, "but eventually, we would blossom. It's been four years coming. We've worked so hard, and this feels fantastic."
