Forest Hills High School Girls Volleyball Upset, 2-0

The Forest Hills High School girls volleyball team suffered some heartbreak on Friday night, after an upset in the first round of the PSAL citywide volleyball tournament. After a season in which they only lost three games in total and one match, the Rangers were defeated by Long Island City High School, 2-0.

Unforced errors were prevalent when Forest Hills held serve, and were ultimately the team's undoing. After an 11-1 season, the Rangers were understandably disappointed.

Hero: Senior Lucia Stosic, who held down the middle for Long Island City, spent much of the game setting up her teammates and deflecting the Rangers' spike attempts right back at them. She was a force to be reckoned with in the middle, and kept the Bulldogs on point, ahead or within striking distance for the entire match.

Turning Point: While the Rangers lost 25-16 in the first game, Forest Hills stayed in the match until the home stretch of the second. With both teams tied at 17, Long Island City put together four consecutive points to pull out in front 21-17. After that moment they never looked back.

Quotable: "I think we're trying to look at the good things that happened in the season, but it's definitely disappointing," said head coach Gisele Ruiz. "This should not be the way that an 11-1 record season should have ended. We didn't look like the number 14 [seed], we looked like the number 19 [seed].  We didn't step it up."

Bottom Line: While the Bulldog's put on an impressive show in their victory, the Rangers, in many ways, defeated themselves on Friday. Long Island City ably returned every volley and serve, and waited for the Rangers to make a mistake, and they proved to be the more patient team on the court.

Key Stat: 17 service errors. The Rangers had 17 unforced errors on service, surrendering those points to Long Island City on botched serves alone. Those 17 points more than make up the difference in the scores of both games combined.

It was clear from the start that the Rangers were nervous, and the 17 points they gave away on serve miscues were almost enough in an of themselves to surrender an entire game without ever giving the Bulldog's the ball.

"With 17 service errors there's no way that we could have won," Ruiz said. "We gave them the game. They're good, but we gave it to them."