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Signed Ball
Woodstock Academy senior Paula Hernandez receives a signed ball from coach Adam Bottone to commemorate her 1,000 career kill, which she got the week before at Ledyard. Photo by Marc Allard.
Hitting
early goals
The Woodstock Academy volleyball team was able to celebrate before and after its match with E. Lyme last week at the Alumni Fieldhouse.
The Centaurs honored senior Paula Hernandez prior to the beginning of the match for her milestone of 1,000 career kills which she accomplished the week before in Ledyard.
The team then went out and shutout East Lyme, 3-0, to clinch at least a share of the ECC regular season title.
“It’s awesome,” said Woodstock Academy coach Adam Bottone of another league championship. “It’s our third year in a row and we couldn’t be happier. It’s always good to do that against East Lyme, they are a good team.”
It’s even more impressive considering the start the Centaurs (9-4, 3-0 ECC Division I) had.
They lost their first three matches, but have won eight of their last nine and the last seven in a row.
“At the beginning of the year, after the first five games, I was thinking this would be a rough season for us. We really dug our heels in, started working more individually with people,” Bottone said.
The success of that approach has been seen in the results.
Woodstock Academy does feature Hernandez who has 277 kills this season.
She added 25 digs in the win over the Vikings and is also closing in on 1,000 digs for her career.
Just her presence is a steadying influence on the rest of the team.
It acknowledged that by giving Hernandez a ball signed by the team in honor of her achievement.
“I know if I’m setting and do my job, I’m 100 percent sure that they will do their job especially Paula. She is just so enthusiastic and aggressive out there and that is what really carries us through sometimes,” said junior setter Marissa Mayhew, who had 26 assists in the win.
That was the case late in the first set against East Lyme.
The Vikings (6-5, 2-2) had built a 19-15 lead when Hernandez stepped behind the service line.
She never left.
Hernandez delivered 10 straight service points and The Academy won the first set, 25-19.
Hernandez had two aces in that run and a pair of kills from the back.
She also had the help of a kill from sophomore outside hitter, Aurissa Boardman.
It was the last of five that Boardman had in the first set.
“I’m really working on my confidence and it definitely helps when I get the hits because my confidence goes up,” Boardman said.
Bottone has said that confidence or lack thereof is the biggest thing that is standing in Boardman’s way. She is sometimes her own worst enemy.
“It’s not only him, other people have told me that. I just have to work through that,” she added.
Woodstock Academy, as a whole, will have to work through something else, too.
The service game, a strength for the Centaurs this season, was off against the Vikings.
Woodstock Academy had 10 service errors in the match.
“It has been a yes or no thing with us,” Mayhew said. “It’s been known as the best in the league at times and at others, it’s questionable. That just means you have to keep working through it and focus on what we can do ourselves rather than trying to critique each other.”
The Centaurs held off the Vikings in the second set, again overcoming a late deficit, to score the 25-23 win.
It was the same story in the third set with East Lyme ahead, 20-18, before the Centaurs rallied and Mayhew served the final five points in the 25-21 win to seal the victory in the match.
“We didn’t really play that well. We struggled with our receive. (Libero) Katie Papp told me earlier in the season that she does better when she relaxes. She was getting frustrated and I reminded her of that conversation. I said to her, ’You need to relax and you will play better.’ She went back out and did that. I think it speaks to our resiliency as a team that even when we don’t play well, we are still pushing through and winning. I hate to be the opponents when we start to play really well,” Bottone said.
He’s starting to see signs of that happening.
The Woodstock Academy coach was especially impressed by a block by junior middle hitter Amelia Large.
“She hung in the air for like five hours and then sent it back down, That was ridiculous,” Bottone said with a laugh.
Bottone was also to see Boardman stepping it up and getting a good number of kills and Mayhew going to an overhand set.
“While it was a struggle, I think we finally have our lineup set and now, we just have to start to fine tune everything. We’re still going to have our lumps along the way and that’s OK. It’s how we respond to that, persevere and get over that,” Bottone said.
Earlier in the week, the Centaurs accomplished another season goal.
They qualified for the Class L state tournament with a 3-0 win over Griswold.
It ended the Wolverines five-match win streak at the time.
“After those first five games, I wouldn’t have expected (qualifying for the state tournament) to come so easy,” Bottone said.
Gabby Garbutt had 16 kills and eight service points including four aces in the win over the Wolverines.
Hernandez added 14 kills and 22 digs while Mayhew had 25 assists.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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