One observer’s narrative of the 5th set of a round #1 match between the Springfield Pride & Juniata Eagles on 4/19/24 for anybody who may have missed it. One of the best finishes I have seen in a long, long time! With D3 Men’s Volleyball being what it has now become, that is saying something! Congrats Eagles on your hard fought victory last evening. You earned it!
Operation “Dinner Out” was put on hold just long enough to see Loras hang on for their tournament life, being tested by Trine in a way I wasn’t able to fathom. Having just finished watching the home team secure the 5th set to win the match 16-14, my wife with her crossed arms, tapping her foot with impatient disapproval over my shoulder, being on the cusp of “hangry” just shy of raising her Italian ire, remarks almost sarcastically, “Can we go now?” Pressing my luck, I respond, “In just a sec, I need to update my bracket.” As I type in the cell, “Loras 3-2” my mind is thinking I just saw the best finish of the day. Hmm, “Not so fast tiger,” as my dad would caution me in my younger years.
I returned home from sharing my favorite chicken nachos at Lulu’s (A restaurant in Fairport, NY) just in time to turn on the stream with Springfield holding a 5-3 lead in the 5th. In the next few minutes I watched 10 points played, each team scoring 5 to keep the margin still at 2, Springfield now leading 10-8. Nine of them were side-outs, 3 of the 5 for Juniata were Springfield’s service errors. The only consolation for the Pride was a single point scored in these 10, an ace by Chris Rouleau. This might not sound like a big deal, but with Juniata serving first in a short set, Springfield only needed to be up by 1 serving point to be the first to 15 and win by 2. And this ace just gave Springfield a 2-0 advantage in service points won. So here they are receiving a Juniata serve, up 10-8 with the likely chance to go up 11-8 in a game to 15, mathematically giving them a 5 in 6 chance to win the set and complete the reverse sweep they were eying since going down two sets to none to start the match.
Juniata Response #1 – “Don’t be eyeballin’ me boy!” (Juniata 8– Springfield 10)
A kill by Tyler Phillips pushed back Pride anticipation just a smidge, the first Juniata point in the set to cut the Springfield point-win margin to 1 up, but the Pride knew they could still side out all the way to 15-13, if need be. For those keeping track, when Springfield sided out that next serve to go up 11-9, these teams together were siding out at 85%, Springfield themselves, 9 of their first 10, i.e. 90% So for any thinking the notion of Springfield siding-out 4 times in a row is outrageous, the math at that moment suggested they could do so roughly 2 out of 3 times. Like I said, pushed back Pride anticipation just a smidge!
Juniata Response #2 – Ask yourself, “Do I feel lucky?” Well do you punk?” (Juniata 11– Springfield 12)
Three side-outs later, and Juniata staring down the barrel of a potential 13-11 deficit, with Springfield halfway to their goal of its modern day Magnum Opus, when Hoffman & Gerdeman blocked A.J. Seveland to tie the score, instead. It would turn out to be the only block assist for Ger-Da’Man in the whole match and the 5th for Hoff-Da’Man, too. What a time to make it happen. Likely the most important block in Juniata’s whole season to that moment! The game announcer proclaiming over the Juniata roar it was the first tie since the second set. He was correct – I checked it out. The previous non 0-0 tie was at 6-6 early in the second set, right about the time I was taking my first bite of pulled chicken nachos.
Juniata Response #3 – “Yeah? Well, you know, that’s just like uh, your opinion, man.” (Juniata 12– Springfield 12)
Now, I was believin’! Juniata seemingly just took a 13-12 lead with a ridiculously athletic play to push a ball off the fingers of a would-be Springfield blocker to win another point. BUT WAIT! Mr. Official see’s it a different way. I went and watched it no less than 6 times pushing my back arrow again and again. Every time not seeing the Juniata player touch the net, a call I believe the Up-Ref made in that pivotal moment? Coach DeHaven out of his mind and the squad in disbelief for what had just transpired. Hardly any time at all to process the sequence of events before Chris Rouleau fires his 2nd ace of the set, and the match, off the arms of Gerdeman, who it seems went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in three consecutive plays, the middle one of this sandwich being absolute insanity by the whole Juniata faithful. Essentially a blink of an eye from what was thought to be a 13-12 Eagles margin, to instead at 14-12, advantage Pride. Now it is very near 90% likely for Springfield to make the last few frantic minutes nothing more than a hiccup on their way to a meeting with Stevens in less than 24 hours.
Juniata Response #4 – “Do or don’t. There is no try!” (Juniata 12– Springfield 14)
Another side-out by Juniata making it 14-13 Pride, before what in essence was a moment of truth. And Chris “The Moment” Mellor with Tyler “The Truth” Phillips showed up and showed out against would-be hero Evan Costley, whose surname was almost apropos at the time, only because volleyball scorekeepers insist on calling something an error when in fact it is the opponent just being a little better in the moment – That is all! They are now at deuce, 14-14, and a new breath of life for the Eagles, even though Springfield still has the upper hand being able to side-out to retake the lead.
Juniata Response #5 – “You can’t handle the truth!” (Juniata 18– Springfield 18)
And that they did 4 consecutive times, 3 coming from Juniata service errors making even the most faithful Eagle fans wonder to themselves if maybe it wasn’t meant to be on this night? Even Springfield caught the serve error bug on the 8th of those side-outs to make the 14-14 deuce morph into an 18-18 tie, and with it, a 6th Pride match point evaporated into the ether. Then it happened. The first Juniata lead since 24 – 21 in set #2, served by 6’7” Junior setter Grant Lorelli and killed by Luke Hoff-Da’Man once again. A lead which meant the match points had turned the corner from Springfield opportunities to those for Juniata, if they could continue to side-out.
Producing just one more point on serve with any string of side-outs was now the recipe for success. Four more side-outs on both sides, two apiece, and one each being unearned, coming from the hand of the server. On Juniata’s third opportunity with a match-point looming over the whole of Pride Nation, Tyler “The Truth” Phillips blocked another Costley error, which really wasn’t, putting this match to bed, once and for all. IT, now the biggest block of the season for Juniata.
Juniata Response #6 – “It was a good death.” (Juniata 25-18; 25-21; 14-25; 22-25; 22-20)
When the smoke cleared after the battle had ended, Reese Ganter had facilitated 61 assists for his squad, tied for the highest number in any match all season long (1500+ D3 matches this year…). Near the end, there were moments he watched his more rested and taller teammate produce some of his own to drive the team total to 67 on the night. I am not sure how many were generated in first ball side-outs, as I was able to watch only the last set. But I do know Springfield must have served 20 times in the last, having scored 20 points on the whole, with only 3 of those scored on their serve – 2 aces. This means the Eagles sided out 85% (17 of 20), and with 5 of them being Springfield service errors, something I hypothesized yesterday might be their undoing against a great side-out team, this Juniata squad had an “earned” side-out rate of 80% (12 of 15). After the 2nd point of this last set, Juniata had 17 passes they put in play, and it didn’t lose one of them. Not one! That is something that might happen playing a first year team once in a blue moon, not one with the talent of Springfield, ever. Tyler Goldsborough and the four other Eagle hitters to attempt double digit attacks killed 54% of their swings while only erroring 12%. In reality, 13 of their 15 “so-called” errors were really just better defensive plays by “Prideful” blockers, led by Will Kirchoff, than any Eagles’ player failing to deliver. If my math is correct, this means they actually only missed twice. In the words of McEnroe, “You can’t be serious!”…
Juniata Response #7 – “Surely, you can’t be serious!”
Well, Coach DeHaven’s squad was serious, and don’t call him Shirley! …His first words at the post game presser summed it up as well as any word could, “WOW” is right, coach!
I decided to dust off an old real time probability application I created many years ago to see how it tracked over the 217 points played in this match. Here is what it looks like:
A DISCLAIMER: I am not among the Juniata “Faithful” to have been offered the gift of this team’s performance last evening. Hell, I am anything but a Juniata fan to put it plainly! What I am is a guy who did some research to write a post about a match the committee seeded as the 8 vs. 9 in the bracket. One whose competitive model suggested the #9 would likely win. Then, was lucky enough to come home in time to be inspired so much by what he witnessed on his computer screen, he couldn’t shake it until he shared his own story of the experience. I sincerely hope it is a worthy testament to those who played and to those who I refer to as their “faithful.”
INTERACTIVE TRIVIA: Can you name the seven movies in history from which the “Juniata Response” headers came. They are all famous lines among my favorites of all time!
BONUS TRIVIA: To double your score, name the movie the phrase written in the first 3 words of this tribute are from. Another great movie with a couple of the biggest Hollywood stars of all time.
(Answers)