Immaculate hands New Milford it’s first loss of the season taking the last set 15-8 #ctgvb pic.twitter.com/37i06NdRyg
— Will Aldam (@AldamWill) October 15, 2019
DANBURY — The Immaculate girls’ volleyball team handed New Milford its first loss of the season in a come-from-behind five-set thriller at Immaculate Monday night.
After falling behind in sets twice during the match, Immaculate rallied back both times and eventually took the fifth set handily 15-8.
“This team has been the underdog for so long,” Immaculate coach Caity Van Camp said. “The fact that they are finally seeing just how capable they are, it warms my heart. I am so proud of them and I couldn’t have asked for any more than what they showed tonight.”
New Milford took control early, taking the first set rather convincingly by a score of 25-17.
In the second set the two teams traded points throughout but with a 19-19 score, Immaculate began to break away, winning six of the next seven points to even the match at a set a piece.
Immaculate ties it up at 2-2 after winning the 4th set 25-19 #ctgvb pic.twitter.com/NhkCgMBnor
— Will Aldam (@AldamWill) October 15, 2019
New Milford pulled away for a 25-15 win in the third set to take a 2-1 lead.
As soon as the fourth set began, the momentum of the match began to swing. Immaculate took a 10-5 lead and never relinquished it.
New Milford was able to bring the score within one at 16-15, but a series of well-placed kills propelled forward to take the set 25-19 and to force a fifth and final set.
New Milford takes set three 25-15 and a 2-1 lead #ctgvb pic.twitter.com/N03bVu7SAC
— Will Aldam (@AldamWill) October 15, 2019
“That is how we have played all year,” New Milford coach Tony Nocera said. “In fact, we usually win games like this because we are scrappy and we don’t let the ball hit the ground. Today there were a lot of 50/50 rolls that we got up, got our hands on the ball and it fell in a perfect place, and that is going to happen. Those are going to happen and they have gone our way all year and today it didn’t.”
Immaculate continued to roll in the final set as the team flipped the script, taking the set easily 15-8.
Immaculate takes the 2nd set 25-20 on this ridiculous final point to even it up at 1-1 #ctgvb pic.twitter.com/RvNhdb4Hab
— Will Aldam (@AldamWill) October 15, 2019
“These girls are fighters,” Van Camp said. “There was one thing I told them on Day One when I came in to take over this program and that was that nobody was going to outwork us. I didn’t care if it were a win or a loss, we were not going to be outworked and these girls busted their butts today and they played awesome. They really stepped up.”
With the win, Immaculate improves to 10-3 while New Milford falls to 11-1.
“I just told them to stay positive,” Nocera said. “Undefeated is a really cool thing to strive for but we still have goals in front of us. We have goals that we set as a team and we want to get there, the only way to get there is to stay positive and learn from this. Immaculate played phenomenally so they deserved it. We matched their intensity, but they won every 50/50 ball, everything went their way and they deserved it.”
