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Pomfret School
Volleyball
Pomfret 3 Berkshire 1
Nov. 19: The Griffins hosted Berkshire School for the NEPSFGVA Class B Quarterfinals. With a gym full of fans, the Griffins came out victorious 3-1 against a very tenacious and well coached team.
Pomfret came out strong in the first set and took a 7-2 lead thanks in part to strong hits by junior Alex Adams. But after a Berkshire timeout, the lead started to disappear.
Suddenly, Berkshire was ahead 14-13 and we couldn’t get back on track to take the lead again. With strong hitting and defense, Berkshire took the first set 25-20.
After a very passionate speech from captain Cayman Macdonald, the Griffins came out determined in the second set to even out the match.
Once again, the Griffins started the set with a 7-2 lead and once again Berkshire fought their way back. But this time, the Griffins played smarter and played better defense. After very good services from Kari Kolderup and good offense from Blaise Desnoes, the Griffins took the set 25-20.
The third set was another battle as both teams continued fighting for every point. Gabby Criscuolos’ kills proved to be huge in this very close set. Thanks to her kills, the Griffins kept up the pace with Berkshire.
With the set tied to 17, Cayman Macdonald went to the service line and helped us get a small 2 point lead that proved to be enough to win the set 25-19.
The fourth set was a heated battle of two teams determined to win and the most exciting of the match. With Berkshire up 5-0, the Griffins were in a seemingly deep hole that was going to be almost impossible to overcome considering how both teams were playing. But the Griffins were not ready to give up and fought hard throughout the set.
Slowly but surely the Griffins were making progress and chipping away at the lead. With the score 13-9 on Berkshire’s favor,
Kari Kolderup did her job with great serves and disrupting their offense forcing them to pass free balls. Pomfret took advantage of that and was able to run their offense and do some damage bringing the score to 13-13. And that’s when both teams started an exchange of great hits and defense like I haven’t seen in a while, said the coach. Point for point, both teams engaged in great rallies showing great determination and amazing displays of defensive skills.
With the score 23-22 in Berkshire’s favor and with ball possession, their server missed a crucial serve giving us a chance to take over. At 23-23, once again Kari Kolderup came up big with her serves. On her first serve, Berkshire receivers mishandled the ball, giving us a 24-23 lead.
On the next serve, on what felt like the longest point ever, both teams had several transitions and good hits.
A crucial moment in the rally was when freshman Juliette Lawless dig a hard hit ball that kept us alive for a couple more transitions. The teams continued battling it out until Cayman Macdonald sealed the deal with a well placed kill to give Pomfret the win 25-23.
Stats: 20-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-23; Kari Kolderup: 22 assists,2 aces, 2 blocks; Blaise Desnoes: 7 kills, 1 block; Gabby Criscuolo: 5 kills, 2 aces; Alex Adams: 6 kills, 2 aces; Cayman Macdonald: 5 kills, 3 aces; Juliette Lawless: 2 kills, 1 block; Lauren Paneyko: 1 ace.