Larson, Diagne keep Tolman playoff hopes alive
LINCOLN — After serving 15 aces in the opening two games to take a dominating lead over Lincoln Friday night, the Tolman girls volleyball team found itself needing to overcome a late deficit in the fifth game to keep its playoff hopes alive.
The Lions, who were playing for pride with their playoff dreams long extinguished, overcame a five-point deficit in the deciding game to take a 12-11 lead on a kill by junior middle blocker Nicole Lezon.
“When it came to late into the fifth game I told my girls that [Lincoln] had nothing to lose,” Tolman coach Roger Tow said. “They were just going to bomb away and it’s their home court, so they’re going to play hard and take more risks. We needed to play our game, but we got tight and started making unforced, uncharacteristic errors.”
With the Tigers’ playoff hopes on the line, senior outside hitter Ally Larson took over. Larson delivered her 11th kill of the match to tie the game at 12 before a couple of Lincoln serve-receive mistakes gave the Tigers their first match point of the evening.
After one of the few long rallies in the choppy match, Larson pushed a shot to the back corner where there was no Lincoln defender to finish off a 25-23, 25-17, 17-25, 19-25, 15-12 Division II-North victory.
“Late in the match we just kept it positive because if you don’t have a positive attitude, you’re just going to fail,” said Larson, who added 11 aces to her 12 kills. “We usually go to five games – which is kind of scary. We just talked about having confidence in ourselves because that’s what it takes to win games.”
Tolman (5-6 Division II-North) knows what it’s going to take to return to the playoffs. Tow said if the Tigers win two of their final three matches then they will be headed to a II-South opponent’s gym for a preliminary round match. If the Tigers take just one of their final three games then they need help to match the playoffs.
Lincoln (2-9 Division II-North) has certainly played better in the second half of the season. The Lions own a victory over Burrillville and they pushed Valley rivals North Smithfield and the Tigers to five games. Friday, setter Victoria Ryan, Lezon and sophomore outside hitter Liv Wodogaza all played well.
“You can’t miss as many serves as we did and expect to win a match,” Lincoln first-year coach Kyle Medeiros said. “Give the kids credit for battling back. I can’t complain about the way they played tonight because this is they’ve played all year. I told the girls late in the match the pressure was all on Tolman.
“They needed to win this match to stay in the playoffs, so I wanted my girls to play the way they’re capable of playing.”
Tolman, which hosts Juanita Sanchez Monday before a crucial contest at Scituate on Nov. 1, also received a team-high 14 kills from junior middle hitter Ama Diagne. The Tigers only won the opening game by two points, but the game between the teams was larger than that.
Led by Larson, Diagne and libero Julia AlAmin, the Tigers led 24-17. Lincoln scored six straight game points before Diagne clinched the game with a kill. The Tigers jumped out to a 12-3 lead in the second game and never looked back. Diagne, again, delivered a kill on game point.
“We had 15 aces in the first two games – that’s how we won those two games,” Tow said. “We started missing serves in the third and fourth games and they started getting aces. This was a serve-receive match. This was really not a clean match, so there weren’t too many volleys.”
Lincoln took advantage of three service errors in the first 17 points of the third game to open up an 11-6 lead. Tolman closed the gap to just one, but outside hitter Bossy MastelloWetherbee and the Lions went on a 14-6 run to close out the game.
Tolman dug itself another hole in the fourth game thanks to an array of serve-receive and hitting errors. Lincoln scored the first seven points and led by as many as 10 before Tolman battled back to tie the game at 19. Lincoln closed out the game on a 6-0 run which was sparked by an Emily Gianetti block.
“The upperclassmen definitely took control,” Medeiros said. “I want the girls to be an extension of myself on the court and I can definitely rely on those girls to be that. I’m starting to see the progression I wanted to see, but we just lost too many matches at the beginning of the year.”