Volleyball: The Latest On The Lady Spartans

A file photo of the Lady Spartans this season.

By PHIL BRODSKY

Orange Live Sports Writer

Sponsored by Robert Sousa of Sousa and Stone

For the second time this fall, the Amity volleyball team dropped a gut-wrenching five game match to Branford (25-21, 25-22, 23-25, 13-25, 15-9) 25-13.  In the first match at Amity, the Lady Spartans won the first two games but then dropped the three and the match. Last Monday night in Branford, the Hornets won the first two games but Amity came alive to win the next two games and deadlock the match at 2-2.  The score was tied 9-9 in the fifth and final match, with Amity holding serve. While Sydnee Sousa’s serve was good, the Hornets bumped the ball back over the net and no Lady Spartan was able to send it back. Branford now led 10-9 and held service. The Hornets proceeded to run off the next five points in a row to win the game 15-9 an d the match 3-2.

Obviously pained by this loss, Coach Paul Thees said, ”We lost the first two games with our starting team on the floor.  They never got anything going so I went to my bench and put them in for Games 3 and 4. These are our roll players and they don’t have much varsity experience, but they pulled out Games 3 and then won Game No. 4 quiet easily, and almost pulled out the match. When it was tied 9-9 in the fifth game, I put our starters back in. We were looking good but we just couldn’t hold on for all of Game #5. Branford proceeded to run off the next six points in a row to win the match.”

As for the causes of the flat performance by his starters, Thees was not sure what to point at.

“This was a Monday match and we never seem to play well on a Monday. We were coming into their guy after a long bus ride. I don’t who why but we never got anything going, especially on offense,” he said.

Noting that Allison Denny was the Lady Spartans’ top kill getter with seven kills, Thees  sourly remarked that total was quite low for a five game match.

Playing only Games 3 and 4, Julia Bedini added six blasts to the floor. Libero Liz Marino recorded a team-best while Claire Foster chipped in with 12. Setter Kathryn Pisano put up 23 assists and was perfect on her 15 serves (with three aces). Sousa was 12 for 12 from the service line with a pair of aces). Amanda Vecchio was good on all but one of her 17 serves (with two aces)

After that painful marathon, Amity bounced back to topple Shelton 3-1 on and blanked West Haven 3-0 . After last week’s three matches, the Lady Spartan spikers have a 10-3 record (4-1 in the Housy).

Amity easily swept past the Blue Devils 25-10, 25-23, 25-19.

According to Thees, “Overall, we played pretty well but at times, we did play down to their level. After winning Game 1 easily, we let things get away from in Games 2 and 3. Our serving was really good but as you can tell from the stats, West Haven had major problems with service return. That’s why we had so many aces.”.

As usual, Denny led the offense but  with a mere four kills.  She was also 11 for 11 at the service line with six aces. Pisano added 16 assists and was good on all 14 of her serves with three aces. Coming off the bench, Zoe Moscato landed 13 of her 14 serves with two aces. Vecchio landed nine of her 10 tries  from the service line, with an ace. Kristen Post chalked up 6 digs. Ashley Wu recorded Amity’s lone block of the match.