Lincoln heads to finals
No. 2 Lions ride play of outside hitters to reach Saturday’s final
Lions top Burrillville in volleyball
NORTH KINGSTOWN — Lincoln girls volleyball coach Kyle Medeiros only called one timeout in Tuesday’s Division II semifinal against top-seeded Burrillville, but it proved to be the decisive moment and what turned out to be a one-sided match.
Through the first 53 points of the contest between the Blackstone Valley foes, the No. 2 Lions only held a fivepoint advantage after Burrillville scored eight of the first 11 points of the second game. Following the timeout, Lincoln outside hitters Olivia Wodogaza and Laila Mostello-Wetherbee helped the Lions deliver one of the more dominating performances in a semifinal.
Mostello- Wetherbee served the final 14 points of the second game and Wodogaza punctuated the game with a kill to help Lincoln win 47 of the match’s final 62 points in a 25-16, 2510, 25-13 sweep of the II-B champion Broncos at North Kingstown High.
“I expected to win and to know that we did it is amazing,” Mostello-Wetherbee said. “The girls and coaches – we deserve it – I’m so glad that we could make it happen. We won four matches last year, so to be here is amazing. We put in so much hard work and it really paid off.”
“The girls and coaches – we deserve it – I’m so glad that we could make it happen. We won four matches last year, so to be here is amazing. We put in so much hard work and it really paid off.”
— Lincoln’s Laila Mostello-Wetherbee
“I’m not surprised at all. We knew that we could do it and we expected to get this far,” Wodogaza said. “It’s all about hard work and determination. I knew we had a lot of potential the second I saw the team at practice. We’ve all been playing together for a long time, so we have a lot of chemistry. This feels so good. We’ve been through so much, but this year has been awesome for us.”
Burrillville (18-2 Division II-B) ended the season on a sour note, but this season was the best the program has produced since going to the 2010 Division II title game. The Broncos combined to win just eight matches in the last three years, but coach Heather Farrell built a successful system around outside hitter Karlee Cournoyer, right-side hitter Alyssa Simpson and setter Sam Gosselin.
Tuesday, the Broncos simply failed to get the ball to Gosselin in system because the Lions continuously attacked their serve-receive. Simpson led the Broncos in kills, but most of her attacks came off of out-of-system passes. Medeiros and assistant coach Lyndsey Sweeney spotted holes in the Broncos’ serve-receive when they were scouting a match two weeks ago.
“This is the best we’ve played all year and we’re peaking at the right time,” Medeiros said. “Burrillville, you have to give them credit, they went 17-1 and had an awesome season. We developed a game plan the second we beat Chariho the other night and we executed it well. The game plan was to serve tough because we noticed something with their defensive base that we could pick on with our outside hitters. We executed our game plan perfectly, I can’t be any more proud of them.”
Lincoln (19-1 Division II-A) will play for its first Division II title Saturday afternoon against fellow Division II-A champion East Greenwich at 2:30 at Rhode Island College. The Lions and Avengers split their regular-season meetings, with each team winning on the other’s home court.
It didn’t take very long for Lincoln to find holes in Burrillville’s serve-receive because Wodogaza served a couple of aces early in the first game to put the Lions ahead 7-2. The Lions continued to pull away, but the Broncos went on a 3-0 run late in the game to close the gap to 21-16. That’s when Mostello-Wetherbee served out the game with three straight service winners.
Burrillville, thanks to a kill from Gosselin and a service winner from libero Kendall Bousquet, jumped out to an 8-3 advantage in the second game. That’s when Medeiros called his lone timeout of the evening to deliver a simple message
“The message was ‘Both teams are going to score points, so you can’t worry about them getting a lead. If they get a lead, we’re just going to chip away one point at a time,’” Medeiros said. “We did just that.”
Lincoln more than chipped away because Burrillville’s lone lead of the match was gone before Farrell could exhaust her supply of timeouts. Lincoln senior middle Nicole Lezon delivered a block and a kill to get Mostello-Wetherbee to the service line with the Lions holding a one-point advantage. The senior, thanks to the play of Lezon, Wodogaza and setter Victoria Ryan, served the final 14 points of the game.
“It was tiring, but I knew I needed to keep pushing for my team,” Mostello-Wetherbee said. “I’m surprised I did that. We just came in here with a really positive energy. Our coaches have so much faith in us and we showed that we can do it.”
Burrillville scored two of the first three points in the third game, but the Lions put the match away with an 9-1 run to take a commanding 10-3 lead. Mostello-Wetherbee and middle hitter Emma Gianetti delivered kills during the run.
Simpson and Cournoyer both had kills later in the game, but it was far too little too late for the Broncos because Wodogoza and the Lions were simply too persistent.
“Olivia and Laila have been stepping up the last couple of matches,” Medeiros said. “They’ve been swinging well, but now their timing is there. It’s great to see the development of those two.”