Boys Volleyball Falls To Darien In FCIAC Semifinals

In a sweltering gym with no air conditioning, the Darien High School boys volleyball team staged a dramatic comeback to advance to the FCIAC finals for the first time in the history of the program.

The third-seeded Blue Wave rallied from two games down to defeat No. 2 Ridgefield (16-25, 12-25, 25-19, 25-19, 15-6) Wednesday night at Fairfield Ludlowe High School.

Darien (13-6) lost twice to Ridgefield in the regular season—once at home and once on the road—winning only one game in the two matches.

The reward for Wednesday's win is a date in Friday's final at Ludlowe (7 p.m.) against a Staples team that has not lost a match in four years. The Wreckers defeated Greenwich, 3-0, in Wednesday's second semifinal to extend their winning streak to 98 matches.

But the Blue Wave will at least show up, something that  looked like a longshot after they dropped the first two games Wednesday in just over 30 minutes.

Early on, Darien's inexperience—the Blue Wave plays one senior and mostly sophomores—showed against the  more seasoned Tigers. 

But after evening the match, Darien had the momentum in the fifth-game tiereaker, leading at one point, 9-1.

"Between the second and third game, coach [Laurie LaRusso] talked to us, and she said it was up to us to turn it around and push to go five games—and that it was our decison whether or not we wanted to step up and actually play," Calder Billhardt said.  

Billhardt helped spark the comeback, recording 17 kills, five service points, four blocks and seven digs. Cockerill contributed 11 kills, seven service points, four blocks and seven digs.