If Linda Strong could take solace in one thing Thursday night, it was that her team wasn’t beaten at its best.
“I thought our performance was subpar,” the Fontbonne Hall girls volleyball coach said after a 25-13, 25-12, 28-26 loss to St. Francis Prep in the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens championship match at Christ the King HS. “That’s not how we play.”
In the first two sets, Fontbonne (13-1) didn’t look like the same team that won the Brooklyn division and beat Mary Louis in the semifinals to become the first team from its borough in eight years to make the league final. The defense and passing that has been the Bonnies’ hallmark escaped them, a dangerous proposition against a team the caliber of now three-time champion St. Francis.
“We didn’t pass at all,” Strong said. “Our setters were running around all over the place. … I feel bad we ended the season this way. They just didn’t bring their ‘A’ game and St. Francis Prep always brings their ‘A’ game.”
Strong said the first words out of her players’ mouths when they got to the bench after the loss were if they’re able to play the Terriers (12-0) again. There is a chance of that happening in the CHSAA Class AA state tournament on Nov. 14 and 15 at St. Anthony’s HS (L.I.), but both teams would have to come out of pool play, something no city team has done before Prep did it last year since 2000.
“I think they’re a beatable team,” Fontbonne senior libero Justina Johnson said. “I think we held ourselves back today.”
The Bonnies said there weren’t any nerves, but experience can’t hurt. St. Francis coach Kevin Colucci admitted as much – his team is a regular in the Brooklyn/Queens final. Fontbonne hasn’t won a title since 1994, when assistant coach Kristina Healey was a junior.
The third set was a better showing from the Bonnies. They passed well; their swings were better. Strong thought if they could have just pulled that one out, her team would’ve been right in the match. Fontbonne hasn’t been very good at giving up all season.
“You know us,” Strong said. “We like to come from behind.”
But Prep came back to win the third set in extra points, showing a killer instinct. Fontbonne was left wondering what if.
“If we played every single set like we played the last one,” Johnson said, “we could have beaten them.”
