BIDDEFORD — There could have been several factors that helped the Biddeford volleyball team keep its composure in the 5th game to defeat Yarmouth on Tuesday.
It could have been the rocking crowd in the Steve White Gym. Maybe it was the stellar play of its two captains.
Or maybe, just maybe, it was due to the mystical powers of “Henry,” the life-sized stuffed bear wearing a Biddeford t-shirt sitting prominantly at the end of the bench.
“He’s a bear on the outside, but he’s a tiger on the inside,” explained Tigers outside hitter Keila Grigware.
Understood.
Either way, the Tigers held on to defeat the Yachtsmen 3-2.
Biddeford head coach Ruth Shaw credited mental toughness to the Tigers win.
“That’s the mental toughness that we’re working on,” Shaw said. “That’s what either is going to make us or kill us. Skill-wise, we can play, but the mental game, that mental toughness, is something we’re still working on.”
Grigware said the win showed the Tigers can play even when they’re not playing their best game.
“I’d say [composure] is our biggest weakness as a team,” Grigware said. “And to overcome that as a team, where we didn’t play our strongest today, shows that anyday that we’re down, we can just come back. Because we get down really easily, and we tend to stay down and stay down, rather than pick ourselves up.”
Leading the way throughout the game were Grigware and Alyssa Drapeau, Biddeford’s senior captains. Both Grigware and Drapeau had 16 spikes on the evening, and Drapeau added four service aces to help the Tigers overcome Yarmouth.
The match went consistently back and forth through each game. In Game 1, the Tigers had a three score lead, but Yarmouth came back, and scoring went back and forth between both squads until Yarmouth came out with a 25-23 win.
Biddeford (3-1) easily won Game 2 with a 25-14, as well as Game 4 with a 25-18 win. Yarmouth hung on to a 27-25 win over the Tigers in Game 4.
It all came down to Game 5, and the Tigers never faltered. Drapeau had two spikes, and Grigware also added a spike, while Deanna Tourigny added two aces to lead Biddeford to the 16-14 win, sealing the match for the Tigers.
Drapeau came away impressed by Yarmouth.
“They were tougher than I expected them to be,” Drapeau said. “They weren’t exactly hard-hitting, but they dug everything in the back row, and they were really scrappy, and got a lot of touches on blocks.”
Biddeford will hit the road on Friday for a match with Cony (2-2). So will Henry.
— Contact Dave Dyer at 282-1535 ext. 318.
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