NFA rallies past Ledyard and qualifies for Class LL volleyball tournament

Norwich — Five-game matches have meant doom for the Norwich Free Academy volleyball team during what's been a topsy-turvy season.

The Wildcats weren't going to lose another one Monday.

NFA looked helpless at times against Ledyard, yet managed to pull it together in the clutch. It rallied to win its Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I match 2519, 8-25, 22-25, 25-21, 15-9 and qualified for the CIAC Class LL tournament with one match left in its regular season.

The Wildcats had 2-1 leads against East Lyme and Fitch during a threeday stretch in September and lost both. Those losses dropped them to 0-4.

NFA lost a five-game match to Killingly on Oct. 6, too.

“We had the mentality of, ‘we're not losing in five ever again,” Wildcats' senior co-captain Kayley Ericson said. “We don't ever want to do that again. … We lost all of those and it was heart-breaking.”

It looked at times like NFA (8-9, 5-3) had forgotten how to both receive serve or pass the ball during Games 2, 3 and parts of 4 against the Colonels.

Ah, but momentum in volleyball is shorter than a goldfish's attention span, thus the Wildcats suddenly straightened out both issues.

“I think it's a confidence issue,” NFA coach Bill Howard said. “When the other team makes a little run at us, we let one mistake compound another mistake. And earlier in the season, that cost us. We lost some really tight matches against some good teams.

“Today, where we had that awful performance in Game 2 and then lost a tight Game 3, in the past maybe we'd let that affect us. But we came out really, really hot in Game 4.”

Ericson, a sure-fire candidate for allstate honors, had 35 assists, four aces and three kills for the Wildcats. Eliana Jewell added 17 kills and 16 digs and Maya Conley had 19 digs.

Adding to the daffiness of the match is that the Colonels (8-11, 2-6) were farand-away the more consistent and reliable team for long stretches. Yet as the Wildcats got better, Ledyard began struggling.

“Maybe NFA started serving more aggressively (late in the match), I don't know,” Ledyard coach Rich Duwelius said. “Maybe we did start bunching up (defensively) and that makes communication more difficult.”

Miranda Chesnut had 15 kills for Ledyard and Sela Gill had 19 assists and four aces. Whitney Brandt (four aces) consistently messed with NFA's serve-receive, too.

Danielle Tirocchi (19 digs) and Anna Barentincic (six blocks, two kills) both helped turn things around for the Wildcats.

Barentincic became a real nuisance up front during Game 4. Tirocchi, a libero, started digging and passing balls that vexed NFA earlier in the match.

“Dani is such a key for us,” Howard said. “You saw those plays she made in the end there. … She was a big part of us pulling this one out.”

Ericson began Game 5 with two tough serves that the Colonels misplayed as the Wildcats led from start to finish.

Jewell served an ace and Bailey Guillamette added one of her 11 kills to push NFA ahead 5-1. A rare kill by Abby Bradford and a Ledyard error extended the Wildcats lead to 11-4. Conley had the match-winning kill. “I give (Ledyard) all the credit in the world,” Howard said. “We had to play our best in the end to pull this one out.” n.griffen@theday.com