Trojans Back In Playoff Picture After Sweeping Carey

The Garden City Trojans are re-discovering their game at just the right time.

Led by the 1-2 offensive punch of Ryan Gallant and Logan Becker and stellar passing and defense, the Trojans posted their second straight three-set victory Tuesday afternoon,  25-19, 25-16, 25-23, over Carey to continue their surge towards a playoff spot.

Garden City was mired in a three-game losing streak and had lost four of five before sweeping Great Neck North last Friday. The Trojans (8-5 overall, 6-5 in Conference IV) now hold the fourth and final playoff spot in the competitive conference standings. Carey (5-7, 5-6) is a game behind, but Garden City has the tiebreaker after sweeping the two-game season series, including a victory on April 14 in which the Trojans rallied from two sets down to stun the Seahawks on their home floor.

"Any team in this conference can beat any team on any given day," coach Phil Opinante said. "It's a very tight conference. The parity has been tremendous this year."

Gallant had 15 kills, eight assists and four aces while Becker added nine kills, a team-high 19 assists and eight digs.

"This is probably our biggest win so far," Becker said. "We went on a pretty bad losing streak and this brought us right back in the mix of things."

Garden City immediately jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the opening set, with four of the points coming on Gallant kills. But the Seahawks rallied with a 9-4 run and finally tied it at 13 when a Trojan kill attempt went beyond the back line. The teams traded the next two points before Garden City went on a 7-1 run that helped seal the set. Brandon Badgett had a kill and helped block another from Carey that produced another point.

"We had a pretty good lead there, but then we made a couple of mental mistakes," Opinante said. "(There was) confusion as to who was taking the ball and not really taking control of each person's responsibility. The communication picked up and when we cut down on the mental errors, our positioning, our defense and how we're running our offensive sets, we do fine."

The Trojans got off to an even better start in the second set by gaining 10 of the first 11 points, aided by four unforced errors by the Seahawks and two pretty soft volleys by Jack Mara that found open ground. Carey did cut it to 11-6, but that five-point difference would prove to be the smallest of the session.

The final set was the most competitive of the afternoon, but Garden City took advantage of several Carey unforced errors to seal the victory. A faulted serve by Carey's John Thomas brought the Trojans to within 16-15, and it became tied when the Seahawks returned a Gallant serve out of bounds. On the ensuing volley, Carey's Lazaro Sepulveda and Anthony Logozzo collided while chasing a pass from libero Scott Liuzzo to give Garden City the lead it would not relinquish.

The Seahawks did score three consecutive points to cut the Trojan lead to 24-23, but Brian Emmert stuffed a kill attempt to end the rally and match.

Carey came into the game having won three of its last four matches.

"We came out this week thinking we had to win the rest of our games," Gallant said. "Carey is tied with us and we needed this win and I guess that's what motivated us."

Garden City had a 90 percent serving efficiency, with Opinante instructing his servers to guide the ball in the direction of either the opponent's "weaker" receivers or any holes he may see in the defenders' alignment.

Doug Donnelly paced the Trojans with nine digs and an 88 percent passer efficiency, while Brandon Badgett  added five kills and six digs while compiling a 77 percent passer percentage.

"I have a very good core of players," Opinante said. "Jack Mara had only two kills and normally he's up there with kills, but he didn't get the ball because the other guys were hot."

Garden City's playoff aspirations will be severely tested when they host two of the three teams that are ahead of them in the standings, including 10-1 Bethpage on Thursday. The Trojans conclude the regular season at Plainedge on May 11 and a home contest against Valley Stream South, the second-place team, two days later.

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