Groton — Steve Banks, coach of the Fitch High School volleyball team, still believes his is one of the best teams in the state.

"I'm proud as hell of this group," Banks said Saturday night.

The second-seeded Falcons, however, also played one of the best teams in the state in the Class L state tournament quarterfinals in No. 7 Platt, coming back from a 2-0 deficit before dropping a breathless five-game match to the Panthers, 25-17, 25-11, 22-25, 21-25, 15-12.

Fitch, down 12-7 in the fifth game, came back to trail by one at 13-12, before Platt scored the final two points of the match.

"We started out too slow. We came out a little tight," said Banks, whose team, ranked sixth in the state headed into the tournament, finished the season 22-2. "One-by-one everybody started getting back into it. (Platt has) some outstanding players, but we fought back. We made it a good match.

"That could have been a state final right there."

To get back into the match, Fitch had to start with getting some stops against Platt star outside hitter Gabriela Vazquez, who finished with 28 kills, 17 digs and 10 aces.

That job fell primarily to Fitch libero Caroline Parker, who had a strategy.

"We practice serving, serve-receive, digging all day. Just remember what it was like at practice," said Parker, who said hitters Caroline Taber and Jen Severino provide her with all the digging practice she could ask for. "Once you're able to dig it, it kind of gets you back. And it gets in their mind, too.

"We had to remember we've been in situations like this before and just keep playing."

Mae Sefransky had 32 assists for Fitch, Severino 14 kills, Taber 10 kills and Mackenzie Aldridge six kills.

Fitch took an 8-3 lead in game three on four straight aces by Taber. The Falcons led 20-12 on another serve by Taber later in the game before Platt came back to pull within 24-22. Sefransky got Fitch its game point by tapping the ball over the net instead of setting it, giving the Falcons new life with a game four.

Fitch led the fourth game 21-20 before Taber smashed a ball off a Platt blocker for a point, Alannah Bunkley came up with a block of Vazquez and Severino added a kill to get the Falcons to game point once more.

Fitch led 5-1 in game five on a Severino kill. Platt chipped away to pull within 6-3 before the hard-firing Vazquez stepped to the service line and gave the Panthers the one last burst of momentum they needed to take the lead.

When she was done, Platt led 9-7 and Fitch was once again playing catch-up.

"We were trying to get some blocks on her. We've got to get some touches, prolong the point," Banks said. "(Vazquez) was tired. But as tired as she was, she stepped up to the line and started firing those serves."

Platt, 22-3, won the Central Connecticut Conference tournament championship as the No. 6 seed to kick off the postseason, beating previously undefeated RHAM 3-1 in the final for its fourth tournament victory in five days. The Panthers also defeated Southington in the semifinals and Farmington in the quarterfinals.

RHAM was ranked second in the state coaches' poll, Southington fourth and Farmington eighth. 

"We got beat by a good volleyball team tonight," Banks said. "We came out tight. We knew what they were going to be doing but we let the moment get to us a little bit.

"They had the momentum in games one and two, we had the momentum in games three and four and game five was a seesaw."

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday