CAPE ELIZABETH — It sure makes for a good night when you can execute your game plan.

That’s what happened Thursday night for the Yarmouth volleyball team.

The Clippers were able to dictate the game with strong serving and net play, and the result was a 3-1 victory.

The 25-10, 25-15, 23-25, 25-12 win improved Yarmouth’s record to 9-2. The Capers dropped to 6-5, losing their second straight.

Yarmouth’s hard and well-placed serves continually had the Capers scrambling to get the ball over the net. Often it was on a bump and not a spike, as would be preferred.

“It all starts with the serve,” said Yarmouth Coach Jim Senecal, who earlier in the week earned his 100th victory in 10 years with the program.

“That’s the plan you want the kids to execute. You want (the opponent) to struggle with that first pass. When they do that it keeps them, what we call, out of system.”

Yarmouth got off on the right foot in the first set with only four service errors in 25 attempts. Middle hitter Marie LeBlanc’s five straight points put her team in control, extending an 11-5 lead to 16-5.

Dominique Moran, Andrea St. Pierre and Sydney St. Pierre kept the pressure on, combining for eight points and only one service error to close out the first set.

“Serving is a huge part of our game this year,” said Alison Clark of Yarmouth. “We’re focusing on keeping teams out of system so we can get our sets and hits going. We focus on our serving so much in practice and I think it showed in this game.”

Clark was the beneficiary of the game plan, leading the Clippers with 19 kills.

Capers Coach Sarah Boeckel certainly noticed the serving discrepancy between the teams. While Cape only had three more service errors in the match, it had numerous issues executing a good dig for the setter to get the ball to the hitters.

“They served tough and we didn’t serve receive as well as we could, and that just puts you automatically on the defense when you should be on the offense,” she said. “It’s a critical component to the game.

“I thought we figured it out a little bit but then we’d give them five points. We’d make an adjustment and then give them five more points.”

Cape captured the third set 25-23 as its serves had Yarmouth on its heels. Madeleine Bauman served seven straight points to turn a five-point deficit into a 24-22 lead.

Bridget Heggie recorded three straight spikes in the run.

“Cape fights for every single point,” Senecal said. “They’re a young team but they are so scrappy on the defensive end.”

It was Sydney St. Pierre who sparked her team in the decisive set. Her five consecutive service points for a 10-4 edge included two straight aces. After a Clark spike got the serve back for the Clippers, she then had three service points to increase the lead to 14-5.

The victory was a nice payback for Yarmouth, which lost to the Capers 3-0 in last year’s playoffs in the same gym.

“We had the memory of the playoffs last year, losing in this gym,” Clark said. “We used that loss to our advantage. We knew we wanted to win this (match) so badly.”

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