Girls volleyball: Serving needs work

Written by Rocco Valluzzo
Thursday, 29 October 2009 11:41

As the Joel Barlow High girls volleyball team prepares for the upcoming South-West Conference playoffs, there is one aspect of its game in particular that it needs to work on the most.

Visiting Brookfield on Monday, the Falcons had trouble serving at times. While they eventually swept their opponent 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 27-25) they had a close call in the final game.

“We have to serve better,” said head coach Steve Antal, whose team missed on a number of attempts. “Four scratches in a row does not help our cause.”

After winning the first game, the Falcons quickly fell behind at the start of the second as the Bobcats jumped out to a 6-0 lead. They held a 12-6 advantage before an errant hit on their part gave the Falcons back the serve.

The visitors responded by tying things at 12-12 and finally took a 17-14 lead on the serve of Renee Wasko. A couple of kills by Emma Cheal stretched it to 22-17.

Brookfield did cut it to 24-22 before a Paige Damascus kill won the game.

The final contest featured a number of lead changes with neither side leading by more than four points at any given time. The Falcons hurt their cause by missing on four straight serves and trailed 13-9 but used some strong net play to close the gap.

With the score tied at 17-17, back-to-back blocks by Damascus put the Falcons back on top. Rachel Schenck’s kill put them at match point (24-1) but they would have to wait before claiming victory.

They had some trouble handling their opponent’s serves and the Bobcats tied it at 24-24 and at 25-25. Another block by Damascus put Barlow back on top and this time an errant hit by Brookfield was just what they needed for the win.

Cheal led Barlow with 11 points and 13 digs and Wasko added seven points with 11 assists. Bodurtha served up nine points and had seven digs.

With senior Caity Van Camp still out with an injury, the Falcons had several players get some time on the court. The coach said that they improved significantly over the past two weeks.

Visiting Pomperaug last Wednesday, Oct. 21, the Falcons found their opponent to be the tallest team they’ve faced so far this season. Such height helped the Panthers significantly at the net as they hung on for a 3-2 (17-25, 25-20, 18-25, 25-16, 17-15) win in a match that went down to the wire.

Wasko and Bodurtha had 13 and 11 service points respectively for Barlow. The former also had 26 assists while the latter came up with 14 digs.

It was an easier time for the Falcons two days later when they hosted Notre Dame. The third game went down to the wire but the Falcons held on to take it for the 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 28-26) sweep.

Maria Kokenos had a good serving day with 14 points, Sarah McAniff and Bordurtha each had nine with seven kills and seven digs respectively. Wasko had seven points with 28 assists.

Now 13-3 overall, the Falcons finish the regular season on Friday at Newtown and start the league quarterfinals on Monday against an opponent and at a site to be determined.