caption, page 2:


Cheering
Paula Hernandez (9) cheers as a shot by Bristol Eastern goes out of play in a Class L state semifinal on Wednesday. Katie Papp of Woodstock Academy looks on. Cherry Lane photography.




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The Centaurs won the first two games of the Class L volleyball state championship Nov. 17.
Unfortunately, it’s where the good news ended.
(Joel Barlow) wanted it more,” said Centaurs coach Adam Bottone. “They came out with a purpose.”
The top-seeded Cepentaurs went from comfortable to uncomfortable in the course of one set and never regained the momentum, losing 3-2 to second-seeded Barlow from Redding.
It was the first loss in 25 matches this season for the Centaurs.
“You can’t put this into words,” said senior Natalie Low. “I’m really sad that this is my last high school volleyball game ever. But it’s not over. Hopefully, in the future, all the girls will stay close, we’re all close friends and we will never lose that bond that we had this season.”
The Centaurs had to battle to win the first two sets.
Paula Hernandez had seven of her 32 kills, which tied her personal best, and Sammie Orlowski added eight of her 32 assists as the Centaurs captured the first game, 25-21.
But holding serve was already a problem.
The Centaurs only had three runs of three consecutive service points and had problems finishing of the set despite a 23-18 lead.
It took a beautiful dig by Hernandez to give the Centaurs the 25-20 win in Game 2.
While the Centaurs were up, 2-0, Hernandez was worried.
“Since the beginning, we were a little sloppy,” the junior said. “We won, but it wasn’t our best game. We were like, ‘Oh my gosh, we won? We knew we needed to play better, but they had really good serves and they were more consistent than all the other teams we played against.”
The Falcons dominated early in the third game.
The Centaurs, a happy-go-lucky bunch all season long, suddenly turned surly.
“We lost our looseness in the third set. They were letting things bother them that haven’t all season, getting frustrated and it went downhill from there,” Bottone said.
Why? Good question.
“Nothing changed on how we prepared or on the bus ride down, warmups were the same. We just mentally broke down,” Bottone said.
Kayleigh Emanuelson and Kiara Robichaud each delivered three service points and Emily Grob put Joel Barlow up 17-7 with a run of seven consecutive.
Bottone did everything he could to change the momentum.
Bottone subbed in Emma Green (9 assists) for Orlowski who he felt was struggling because she was thinking too much about what she needed to do.
Plus, Green’s serve was a little flatter than Orlowski’s.
“Nothing worked,” Bottone said.
The Centaurs lost the third set, 25-13.
“It was a little rough after that,” Low (13 kills, 14 service points) said.
The Falcons were successful in doing something that the Centaurs had done all season, taking their opponents out of system.
The defense struggled and the Falcons took the fourth game, 25-19, to force the decisive fifth game.
The Centaurs went up, 9-5, on an Amelia Large block.
But again, it was the service line that decided the Centaurs fate.
A service error by the Centaurs turned the serve over to Riley Paradise.
The Falcons’ senior put down five straight service points, three on aces. Paradise had six of the 15 aces that Barlow recorded, the Centaurs had only five.
Paradise gave Joel Barlow the 11-9 lead and the two teams traded points.
The Falcons broke a 14-all tie on a Julia Mullin (17 kills) kill.
It was Arden Westphalen who put down the decisive point for the Falcons, tipping it over the net and the Centaurs could not return it.
“It’s immensely disappointing,” Bottone said. “I said in practice the other day, ‘If we lose this one, we didn’t come to play.’ That was the case. Barlow is a really good team. They do things really well. They serve well, don’t make a ton of mistakes and just took us out of our game.”
The Centaurs were coming off a strong effort in the semifinal, where they downed Bristol Eastern, 3-0, Nov. 14 Windsor High School.
Bottone had a plan in that game that worked to perfection.
He wanted to serve to Bristol Eastern’s outside hitter Zoe Lowe and at libero Alexandria Dimattia.
“What I saw when I scouted them was that they struggled quite a bit receiving RHAM’s (High School) serve and I feel we are a better serving team than RHAM was,” Bottone said. “That was especially true when Lowe was in the front row because when she can’t transition and make a quality approach, she struggles getting a good hit. When she is able to transition, she can be dominant.”
The Centaurs kept Lowe at bay, took Bristol Eastern out of its system.
The Lancers (20-4) may have made a mistake before the match.
They gave the Centaurs a little bulletin board material.
In the their local newspaper, Bristol Eastern coach Stacy Rivoira said that one key would be to neutralize Hernandez.
It fired up the junior.
Opponents should know that is not a good thing to do.
“It really made me want to play better,” Hernandez said. “Just knowing they targeted me because they know I can do damage to them, which makes me want to do even more.”
Hernandez made her presence felt in the first set.
She recorded nine kills and the Centaurs rolled to a 25-17 victory.
Hernandez had a personal motive.
She wanted to better her personal best 32 kills.
She fell a little short of that with 20.
“You can slow Paula down a little bit, but, honestly, you can’t stop her. She’s just that dominant of a player. We see that every day in practice and it makes everyone else that much better,” Bottone said.
The Centaurs had Bristol Eastern setter Aliana Rivoira on the run much of the night and didn’t allow her to settle in and set players like Lowe and Amber Blais often.
It meant Bristol Eastern had trouble building any momentum.
“They put up a solid fight, but we were able to execute on the things that we could control more. That’s what our game was. We were able to side out when they served,” Orlowski said.
The best offense the Lancers had was Rivoira’s serve which produced nine service points and four aces, but had some inconsistency to it as it ended with a service error three times.
“It was falling shorter than the servers we faced in the past,” Hernandez said of the Rivoira serve.
The Centaurs won the second set, 25-14, building momentum throughout.
Orlowski had four service points while Marissa Mayhew, Maddy Gronski and Bekah Wesler each put together runs of three consecutive points before side out.
All the while, the Centaurs were having fun.
“We try to keep the positive mindset. If it means we have to dance or sing, it helps. It gets us through each game. We try to get in their heads and it helps us win,” Orlowski said.
The Centaurs had to battle in the third set after Bristol Eastern tied the game at 25.
Hernandez was up to the task.
She took a set from Orlowski (26 assists) for a cross-court kill and followed that up with a powerful hit through the block for a 27-25 Centaur victory and a second chance at a state title which, unfortunately, fell short.
Bottone said it was hard, on Saturday, to think about just how good a season it was. An Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I regular season crown, an undefeated regular season, and an ECC tournament championship.
Repeating a season like that may be difficult.
The Centaurs lose Orlowski (689 assists), libero Maddy Gronski (449 digs coming into Saturday), Low (306 kills, 251 digs, 208 service points, 38 aces), Bekah Wesler, Green, Rachel Durand, Danuse Horka and McKenna Gagnon.
“I think it might be a struggle. We’re losing quite a bit,” Bottone said. “All season has been more than just Paula (493 kills, 370 digs, 76 aces) and (Saturday) was an indication of that. You can’t have just one person winning a match. We lose our setter, don’t have a replacement. We lose Maddy defensively, who do we replace her with and Natalie has been pretty good all season. There is a lot of work for us to do. This time last year, I thought we would be back (at a Class L championship). Next year, it might be a little stretch.”
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy