Somersworth girls volleyball comes back to beat Windham (video)
One set into Wednesday’s match, and Steve Hodsdon was worried about his Somersworth High School girls volleyball team.
WINDHAM – One set into Wednesday’s match, and Steve Hodsdon was worried about his Somersworth High School girls volleyball team.
The Hilltoppers were coming off their first loss of the season two days earlier, and didn’t look good in dropping the first game against Windham.
But momentum swung Somersworth’s way after that, and despite trailing 2-1, the Hilltoppers rallied to win the final two games to beat the Jaguars 3-2 in Division II action. Game scores were 19-25, 25-14, 19-25, 25-20 and 16-14.
Kelsey Bickford led the Hilltoppers (12-1) with 17 kills while Kaitlyn Lavoie had 10 kills and seven aces and Jamie Sharpe had eight kills and four blocks. Kailey Kinsey finished with 24 digs and Hunter Gosselin had 37 assists and 15 digs, helping Somersworth improve on its passing as the match moved along.
“Windham really took it to us and it took us a little while to adjust,” Hodsdon said. “Toward the end of Game 1, we got a little momentum, and Game 2, we just relaxed a little bit and just started swinging better, started swinging smarter. We were finding the holes and we were really working on exploiting some different matchups.
“When we’re passing well, we’re a tough team. When we pass well, we have a bunch of hitters who can do stuff with the ball, they’re not just pounding away. They’re moving it around.”
Windham (11-2) got 11 kills, nine digs and two aces from Lexi Sawyer while Casey Dinga had 10 kills and eight blocks and Katie Farrell had 27 assists, 11 digs and four kills. Kacie Flahive also had 20 digs and Julie Sanders added 10 digs and four kills.
But Jaguars coach Jill Bartlett felt her team was lacking the energy needed to pull out a win over a good opponent.
“They were low on energy,” she said. “They played strong and consistent, but low on energy. I expected a bit of a spark (Wednesday). I thought it was a quiet confidence (winning Game 1), a sort of in-the-zone focus, but there were times where it was just small mistakes, or a lack of moving their feet or being dynamic. That isn’t normally an issue for us and it proved to be an issue.”
After taking the first game, Windham fell behind in the second, including 23-9 at one points. The Jaguars rallied to make it closer before eventually succumbing by 11 points, as Somersworth evened the match.
The Hilltoppers took an early lead in Game 3, jumping out to a 5-2 lead, but Windham took 11 of the next 13 points to pull ahead 13-7 and force Hodsdon to take a timeout. The Hilltoppers were able to pull within one point twice, but eventually fell by six points in the third game.
“We’ve talked all year about adjusting to the style of play,” Hodsdon said. “Some teams are like these guys and there are a lot of bombs coming at you and a lot of angles. The first game, we did not do a good job of cutting down those angles. We weren’t there. I physically went on the court and said ‘right here’ and as soon as we did that, we started to be in the right spot.”
Windham took an early lead in the fourth game, but Somersworth wouldn’t go away, as the teams went back and forth, tying the game up seven times through the first 22 points. But the Hilltoppers, behind the serving of Haley Baxter, won four points in a row to take a 13-12 lead that they wouldn’t give up, forcing a fifth game.
Somersworth went up 5-1 in the final set before Windham won seven of the next nine to pull ahead 8-7. The Hilltoppers responded to take a 10-8 lead, but the Jaguars rallied again, going up 12-10. The game was then tied at 13 and 14 when a kill by Lavoie gave Somersworth the lead and she then served up an ace to clinch the match.
“We fought, the whole time, it was back and forth,” Bartlett said. “We needed just to take that one extra step more, be a little bit less on defense and a little bit more on the attack.”
Both teams are back at it Friday, as Windham heads to ConVal and Somersworth hosts Oyster River.
“I can’t say enough about my girls and what they did, especially coming out after the last game,” Hodsdon said. “It’s an awesome win in a tough place to play.”
