Trojans Clinch Playoff Berth With Comeback Win At Plainedge

The Garden City Trojans varsity volleyball team clinched a playoff spot Tuesday afternoon thanks to an improbable comeback.

Garden City trailed two sets to none to host Plainedge, winners of just two matches all season, before rallying for a 22-25, 18-25, 25-16, 25-23, 25-12 victory over the Red Devils. The game was actually relocated to the district's new middle school a couple of days ago because of bleacher problems at the high school.

The Trojans improved to 9-6 overall, but more importantly 7-6 in the Conference IV standings and two games ahead of Clarke and Great Neck North for the fourth and final playoff spot with one game remaining for each school. Great Neck North ended Clarke's postseason hopes by beating the Rams in four sets on Tuesday.

Teams in the Conference III-B and IV are grouped together in the postseason. Garden City will likely be the 11th seed and, in that case, will face the sixth seeded team since the top four in Conference III receive first-round byes.

Logan Becker returned after missing one game with an illness and had a huge day with a career-high 33 assists and 22 kills, with Ryan Gallant adding 28 kills and 21 assists.

"Logan played great tonight," coach Phil Opinante said. "Ryan Gallant was also tough with his hitting, setting and serving."

Poor serving was the root of Garden City's problems in the first two sets, but it greatly improved in the final three as the servers began to put the ball in areas that kept the Red Devils' offense off-balance. The Trojans served to an 88 percent clip overall on the afternoon with 13 aces and service errors.

Jack Mara gallantly overcame an apparent stomach virus that set in during the first set and finished with a team-high five aces while throwing off the Plainedge offense with his "float serves." Brandon Badgett also had a strong serving game.

"(Brandon's) serves were very strong and caused havoc for Plainedge," Opinante said. "It gave us free balls that converted into our attacks."

Defensively, Brian Emmert and Sean Skramko each produced four solo blocks and assisted on two others.

"Brian and Sean had their hands on a lot of balls that slowed down the Plainedge attackers," Opinante said. "Except for set five, Plainedge was swinging very hard and scoring well throughout the first four sets despite the scores of each set."

It marked the second time this season that the Trojans rallied from two sets down to win a match, also doing it at Carey on April 14.

Garden City's final warmup before the playoffs will be Thursday at home against Valley Stream South.