BIDDEFORD — There’s something freeing about losing expectations of success.
Just ask the Yarmouth volleyball team, which ended its regular season with a five-set loss to Biddeford and then saw senior outside hitter Rachel Chille sidelined because of a collision during a preliminary round victory over Windham.
“We literally had nothing to lose,” said Yarmouth senior Alison Clark.
Instead of an attack balanced between Clark and Chille, the sixth-seeded Clippers relied heavily on Clark, and she delivered 29 kills Saturday in a 3-1 Class A quarterfinal victory over No. 3 Biddeford.
The scores were 25-19, 25-21, 22-25, 25-21.
The Clippers (12-4) advance to a Wednesday semifinal at No. 2 Scarborough (15-1), which swept its quarterfinal against No. 7 Bonny Eagle.
With Chille sitting out in adherence to concussion protocol, junior Olivia Robichaud and sophomore Skylar Bennett were asked to play back and front row, respectively.
“Both of those kids (haven’t) seen a lot of playing time all year,” Yarmouth Coach Jim Senecal said. “This match, they had to.”
Robichaud passed and served well and Bennett did her best with Biddeford’s tips and short game, allowing Yarmouth to extend rallies and eventually find Clark for a booming spike, or occasionally and with great effect, sophomore middle hitter Ceanne Lyon. Normally relied upon for her blocking abilities, Lyon scored four critical points in the fourth set on softer spikes that caromed off the hands of Biddeford blockers.
“It’s the (slightly unorthodox) nature of her attack that really gets their block off balance,” Senecal said of Lyon, who is playing volleyball for the first time this season. “She’s not a powerful hitter.”
Eight points into the opening set, Biddeford junior middle hitter Mia Martel sprained her ankle and left the court with assistance. Suddenly, the Tigers were missing an important cog.
“It was a big adjustment,” said Biddeford senior setter Caitlin Rousselle. “We had no one to go up and block because the other middle hitter is not as tall. So the hits were coming at us harder.”
Yarmouth won five of the final six points in the first set, then fell behind 12-3 in the second set before storming back to tie it at 17 on a Clark spike from the back row. She ended the set with a sideline winner.
“Fortunately, we got out early in that first (set) and all of a sudden, these kids who probably thought they were going to lose had confidence that they could stay with Biddeford,” Senecal said. “We’ve had a lot of wins in our program, but this one is very special because we beat a great team on their floor.”
Biddeford pulled away in the third set with help from a scoring error that gave the Tigers an extra point. Yarmouth shrugged it off and jumped to a big lead in the fourth set before Biddeford pulled within 23-21. Two kills from Clark ended the match.
“If that had gone five, we’d be congratulating Biddeford, I think,” Senecal said, “because our kids were tanked. They really were.”
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