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By Joseph Staszewski
Brooklyn Daily
Fontbonne Hall can say something no Brooklyn-Queens girls’ volleyball team but St. Francis Prep in has been able to say in the last seven years.
“I said to them, ‘We’re number one.’ ’’ said Bonnies coach Linda Strong of her post-match speech to her team. “We haven’t been number one in a long time.”
Fontbonne beat the Terriers for the second-straight time and further challenged their supremacy of the AA division with a 25–22, 22–25, 25–19, 25–13, victory in a tie-breaker match for the regular season title on Thursday night in Fresh Meadows.
It is Fontbonne’s first regular season crown in program history, and ends St. Francis Prep string of seven straight. The Bonnies will be the top seed when the diocesan playoffs open Tuesday with a semifinal match against Molloy.
“It means the world to all of us,” said Fontbonne junior setter Bryn Nagel. “We didn’t want to be too cocky, but we were hoping we can come out and win this. It feels amazing to be first.”
The Bonnies ended a first-set win with a sequence that epitomized the way they played all night. Emily Greenstein dug a kill attempt from St. Francis Prep’s Jessica Vishnudat and Nagel quickly set Francesca Castellano for a kill to give the Bonnies a win. Fontbonne played with that type of efficiency, hustle and skill throughout the match. It’s offense was in a rhythm the Terriers could not match.
“We have always been very fluid, but today it just felt everything was right,” Nagel said.
St. Francis Prep, which hurt itself with mistakes at times, took the second set behind the play of Vishnudat and Stephanie Bogda. It didn’t get Fontbonne down. It kept its poise and composure. The Bonnies grabbed an 11–6 lead in the third set thanks to the serving of Gabby Breen. The Terriers tried to inch back into things after cutting the lead to 18–14, but the Bonnies never let it happen. Castellano twice answered St. Francis Prep points with kills of her own.
“We killed their momentum,” she said.
Fontbonne felt it carried its own momentum into this match after beating St. Francis Prep in four sets also the last time the teams played. Castellano felt beating the Terriers in Queens for a title, however, really showed that this team could win the diocesan and earn a bid to the state playoffs.
But Strong made sure to warn them not to get too high, knowing there is another title to win.
“This is a little battle for the war,” she said.
St. Francis Prep coach Kevin Colucci said Fontbonne out-played his team in this match, especially with its digging. His team also never got its passing going. He told his club that the loss meant nothing in the long run. It just changed the road to the final. If it gets there as expected, it will need to play better to beat Fontbonne.
“They served us tough,” Colucci said. “We didn’t pass the ball as well as we should of.”