The Farmington volleyball team was two points away from losing in the state championship game.
Farmington coach Laura Arena called a timeout. Her team had won the Class L title the year before. The top-seeded River Hawks had beaten Bristol Central twice during the season. But they were not playing well, making mistakes they didn’t normally make, and they were mentally not in the game.
Arena told her players: One point at a time. You can do this. It’s not over at 23 points, it’s over at 25 points.
“We’re still alive,” she told them.
“We’ were treading water, barely, but we were still alive.”
At that point, Farmington began a remarkable comeback. Senior libero Jamie Zadrozny served eight straight points. Bristol Central scored a point and it was match point. But Farmington rallied again to win the set and then cruised in the fifth set to win its second straight title, 3-2 (18-25, 24-26, 25-23, 27-25,15-4).
The announcer at East Haven High School had told the fans not to storm the court when Zadrozny started to serve in the fourth set with Bristol Central leading 2-1 and up 23-14.
“I guarantee you there wasn’t anyone in that gym that thought, ‘Well, Farmington’s going to come back,’” Arena said.
“It was an unbelievable comeback. Unbelievable. Ten years ago, (Arena) won (her) first title and it was also a reverse sweep with a comeback against RHAM but not quite like that. Some of the adjectives I saw were: ‘Preposterous. Insane. Wild. Unimaginable.’ We pulled it off. I was so proud of the girls.”
Video Highlights from @NFHSNetwork
Farmington repeats as Class L Girls Volleyball State Champions! Rallying from down 2 sets to Bristol Central, then being 2 points away from losing in the 4th set.
Farmington wins 3-2 (18-25, 24-26, 25-23, 27-25,15-4)#ctvb @FHS_RiverHawks… pic.twitter.com/GYaBFz0xXi
— CIAC Sports (@ciacsports) November 17, 2024
Zadrozny said the feeling amongst the players before the match was that it wouldn’t be too hard because Farmington had beaten Bristol Central twice.
“Going into the first set, we noticed they were energized and getting some good kills on us and that brought us down and we started to play really nervous,” Zadrozny said. “They kind of did the same thing the second set. We were looking around at each other, we really didn’t know what to do. We hadn’t really prepared for this mentally. We kind of thought it was going to be an easier match.”
Farmington struggled to win the third set but there was no momentum, and the River Hawks promptly went down in the fourth set.
“Then everybody started playing their absolute hardest, hitting the ball, finding the floor and playing a lot smarter than the first two sets and we brought that energy into the fourth set and even though we were down, 23-14, we still came together,” Zadrozny said.
“I knew if I missed my serve it would be game point for them, so I tried to play all my serves pretty safe. I wanted to give my team the opportunity to fight back and just putting the ball in play would give (Bristol Central) the opportunity to mess up and for us to get the point. So I put it over and they kept messing up and we kept the play alive.”
When they went up 8-0 in the fifth set, the River Hawks felt pretty confident.
Zadrozny, who had 34 digs, was named the game’s Most Outstanding Player. Four of Farmington’s hitters – senior Lucy Scudder (15 kills), junior Sydnie Smith (15 kills), junior Lauren Jones (12 kills) and senior Kiera Wilkes, who had five of her 12 kills in the critical fourth set – all contributed, as did senior setter Emily Sousa, who had 53 assists and 16 digs.
Arena talked at practice this week about “The Feeling.”
“It’s nice to get shiny material things like a jacket or ring but the feeling you have, that’s with you wherever you go,” Arena said. “That will always be with you. I had several girls on last year’s team and they were able to talk about that feeling.
“They understood it and now they got that. To go back to back is not easy and then to have the comeback we had, it was magical. It was magical.”
