YARMOUTH — On the surface, the Yarmouth High volleyball team has little in common with York.
The Clippers have won four state championships in eight years, while York is in just its fourth season as a varsity program.
Yet top-seeded Yarmouth struggled with the scrappy Wildcats in the third game of their Class B semifinal Wednesday night, rallying for a 26-24 victory to cap a 3-0 sweep and earn another trip to the state final.
The defending Class B champions (15-1) will face third-seeded Cape Elizabeth at 8:30 p.m. Friday at the University of Southern Maine. It will be a rematch of last year’s championship match, won by the Clippers in five sets. Cape advanced by sweeping its semifinal at No. 2 Washington Academy.
“Most of our team is young, with sophomores and juniors,” said Yarmouth Coach Jim Senecal, “but we’ve got a strong team. With Maggie (Murray) and Evelyn (Lukis) at the net, we’ve got a lot of power.”
Yarmouth led throughout the first game en route to a 25-13 victory. Fourth-seeded York (12-4) took an early lead in Game 2, but Murray had a kill at the net, followed by a big block, to put Yarmouth ahead, 13-11. The Clippers led the rest of the way and won, 25-18, on a Lukis power shot.
The third game was all together different.
The Wildcats took the lead three times early and led by as many as five points. York senior Emma Parrotta had two kills and two big blocks in the set and was a dominating presence at the net.
“It’s a weird game and momentum can change so quickly. If they had taken the third set, that can snowball,” Senecal said. “But we recently moved Maggie to the right side to help block, and it’s been very effective.”
With York leading, 23-20, Yarmouth’s Kaitlyn Bennett – who recently returned from knee surgery – hit a shot that York couldn’t return. After York hit the ball into the net, Yarmouth junior Margaret McNeil had a nice tip to tie it, 23-23.
York took the lead one last time on a kill by senior Abby Orso, but then the Wildcats put the ball into the net on the next two points to help Yarmouth close out the match.
“We just were trying to get them out of their systems, and we did that in the third by passing really well,” said York Coach Suzanne Bradley.
“If we had taken that third set – anything can happen. We were in the semifinal last year, we were hoping to take another step forward this year. But Yarmouth is a fabulous team.”
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