FALMOUTH — The flowers – purple orchids – went to the parents of Falmouth seniors playing their last home volleyball match.
The perfect regular season? That belonged to Greely.
Additional Photos
The Rangers swept Falmouth in three games Friday night to cap a 14-0 season in which they dropped only four games and won 42. No opponent managed to extend them to a fifth game.
“We were a little nervous,” said Greely senior co-captain Emily Sampson, who led her team with 26 digs and contributed 16 kills. “(Falmouth is) a really strong team. They get a lot of balls up and every rally is really long. So you definitely have to have a lot of endurance.”
With scores of 25-17, 25-20 and 25-19, Falmouth stayed competitive throughout the match despite playing without injured middle hitter Jenna Serunian, who underwent knee surgery Friday.
Whenever Falmouth (9-5) crept back into contention, such as when Natalie Kuhn’s service winner gave the home team a 16-15 lead in the middle game, Greely responded, often with a blast from the outside or the back row by Maggie Bradley.
“We seem to do better under pressure,” Sampson said. “For some reason, we can buckle down and play with a lot more intensity when it means a lot more. I wish we could play with that intensity at the start. Sometimes we just need a little boost.”
Bradley finished with 24 kills and, on her powerful jump serve, two aces. Greely setters Danielle Cimino and Haleigh Roach also spread the wealth to Ellie Weickert (12 kills) and Jordynne Copp, mostly in the middle.
“Teams almost cheat and move farther outside (in an attempt to block an anticipated spike by Bradley,” Weickert said. “So it’s less expected when Dani or Haleigh – our setters – set it back or in the middle.”
As the top-seeded team, Greely draws a bye in the first round of the Class A state tournament. Falmouth travels to Biddeford on Wednesday in a rematch of last year’s state championship match, with Greely taking on the winner next Saturday.
“We have a few things to fix, but I think we’ll be OK,” said Falmouth Coach Gary Powers. “Yeah, they’re a great team, but they didn’t overpower us. I’m happy with that.”
Falmouth senior Nicole Rogers moved from outside to help make up for the loss of Serunian, and Danielle Li provided a spark off the bench. Setter Laney Evers directed the offense and the entire team contributed to blocking and digging Bradley’s freewheeling spikes.
“I’ve got to say, Falmouth did a great job of digging those out,” said Greely Coach Kelvin Hasch. “She loves to hit cross court and they blocked a lot of them. They were able to dig those up.
“What we saw (Friday night) was just good high school volleyball.”
Staff Writer Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at: gjordan@pressherald.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.