The last time the Lynnfield and Lynn Classical volleyball teams met was two years ago when the Rams pulled off an upset in the state tournament, sending the Pioneers packing after beating them in a back-and-forth five setter, 3-2, in the Round of 32.
Friday night, however, belonged to the host Pioneers, who evened the score with a 3-0 win (25-21, 25-15, 25-21) to remain undefeated at 5-0.
“We didn’t have the strongest serving game and didn’t really have anyone with more than two aces, but that’s a credit to (Classical) Coach (Chris) LeBlanc,” said Lynnfield coach Brent Ashley. “Chris has done wonders for that program. I think they may have sent over only five or six free balls. He had more kids hitting down balls, so we had to adjust the entire time.”
LeBlanc said he thought the Pioneers wanted it just a little more.
“It meant a little bit more to them I thought,” he said. “They had the effort and the result. They just wanted it a little more and that’s what happened.”
Lynnfield junior Audrey Manning had a solid all-around game with 13 kills and 14 assists, while senior Alexia Vaquerano finished with 12 kills. Sophomore Carina DeLeo finished with 16 assists. On the defensive side, junior Elliana Moretti had a team-high 16 digs.
Senior Brooke Braswell led the Rams with 12 kills, five blocks and three aces. Senior Emma Chevalier finished with 16 assists and six kills, while Senior Stacia Wonoski chipped in eight assists. Junior Sejla Iriskic was solid defensively with six digs.
Classical held the upper hand early, jumping out to an early lead in the first set. Still tied at 10 all, the Pioneers found their rhythm, rattling off four straight points on senior Olivia Kelter’s serve to lead 14-10. The Pioneers stretched the lead to 24-16, but the Rams roared back with five straight points to cut the deficit to 24-21 – the big shots being a cross-court kill and block from Braswell to keep the set alive, only to misplay a serve to go down 1-0.
LeBlanc attributed the momentum change to the Pioneers stepping up with some quality shotmaking.
“I think Lynnfield had a couple of well-timed shots and we got a little timid, ” he said. “Our energy went away. All of a sudden, instead of playing to win and making the shots, we played not to lose. We became too passive, and you can’t win doing that. We needed to be more aggressive, but we didn’t do that today.”
“That’s the fourth time we’ve gotten off to a slow start,” Ashley said. “That’s definitely something that we will discuss. Today was tough as with a freshman match, it was a long wait to play.”
The Pioneers left nothing to chance in the second, taking the lead for good at 3-2 and cruising the rest of the way.
In the third set, the Rams again jumped out to an early lead and still led by two at 13-11. Lynnfield went on an 8-3 run to take its largest lead of the set, 19-16. Once again, the Rams rallied, closing to within one, 22-21, after a well-placed soft tap by Braswell, but that was as good as it got. A couple of Classical miscues set up a set-and-match point for the Pioneers and Manning wasted no time closing out the match with a monster kill up the middle.
Ashley highlighted the play of sophomore Milana Labkovich.
“All of their offense ran through her and she had four big blocks for us and four or five really big points at big times tonight to stop their best hitter,” he said.
LeBlanc praised the play of Braswell.
“She’s one of the few middle hitters who plays all six rotations,” he said. “If we need a serve or a block or point put down, she is there for us. If we want to go far in the state, that has to keep going.”
