One for the memory books
East Lyme makes most of an emotional season with victory in final ECC match
East Lyme — The Eastern Connecticut Conference Postseason Experience for girls' volleyball wasn't a tournament in the traditional sense with the league broken into regional divisions and teams unable to participate due to COVID-19 outbreaks at their respective schools.
Top- seeded East Lyme still found some significance in beating third-seeded Ledyard for the Southern Division title on Thursday 25-16,
25-23, 21-25, 25-17.
"Hopefully we'll get a (2020) on the (volleyball championships) banner (in the gym), but I don't know about that yet," Vikings senior Jaylyn Mueller laughed. "We're going to bribe our athletic director (Steve Hargis) for it."
East Lyme (9-1) began to unravel late in Game 2, lost the next game and trailed by as much as 12-4 in the final game.
The Vikings ended the match — and their season — with a crescendo. Seniors Brooklyn Geida and Mueller both got hot at the service line and went on back-to-back runs to help East Lyme turn a 13-7 deficit into a 23-14 lead.
"I'm definitely proud of our team for making it work through these difficult circumstances," Geida said. "We made the best of it and still had a great season."
Sophomore Shae McMunn had 24 assists, freshman Skyler Bell had 20 digs and Geida had nine digs and four aces for the Vikings. Junior Shannon Pierce added nine kills.
Senior Hannah Avila had 21 assists, 10 digs, three kills for Ledyard (7-6) and classmate added Kira Kassim 10 digs, seven kills, four aces. Also, senior Natalie Poulton had eight kills and eight digs and classmate Codee Carroll had 12 digs and four aces.
The Colonels showed growth in
their second season under head coach Marin Marciano.
"I was telling the girls how we lost tonight wasn't how we wanted to end our season, but we needed to be mindful that we were lucky to have a season," Marciano said.
Marciano added, "we're in a pandemic. I think it's important to remind everyone of that. I wanted to tell (my players) that they had to thank their parents for letting them play, and I feel very fortunate to have the administration we do at Ledyard High School who have put things in place to allow us to have a full season. … To have none of my varsity players impacted by COVID, I think it's unheard of."
Ledyard won the third game and went on a 6-0 run to go ahead 12-4 in Game 4. Four of those points were off Vikings' errors.
"We just kept making the same mistakes," Geida said. "It was the mental game that was getting us."
Mueller went to the service line with her team losing 13-6 and got on a roll. Ledyard struggled to receive her serve and made three errors while Geida and Bell each added kills to cut East Lyme's deficit to 13-11.
Ledyard got the ball back on a Vikings error. The latter got a point and the serve right back on Pierce's kill.
Geida took her turn at the service line and went on an 11- 0 run. She served two aces, Pierce had three kills and junior Ella Freed added two kills
(she finished with 15) as East Lyme took a 23-14 lead.
"My hits weren't on point tonight, so I had to compensate and do my best to make up for it at the service line," Geida said. "( I had to) have confidence in myself because I knew I could do it."
Marciano said, "(Volleyball is) all about momentum and never letting your guard down. ... Volleyball is very challenging mentally. Teaching our girls to be mentally strong and not letting up is something I think all coaches struggle with. It's so easy to gain points and lose points."
A Ledyard service error gave East Lyme match point. Bell served an ace to end it.
"I think it's amazing that we won this season," Mueller said. "We lost a lot of good players (to graduation). .... If we were going to have a season, or are we not going to have a season (because of the pandemic). So it's amazing that we pulled out a win."
• Second-seeded Waterford ended its season with a 25-10, 25-18, 25-14 victory over No. 4 Bacon Academy in the consolation round. Angela Colonis had 22 assists and seven aces for the Lancers, who finish 8-3, while Kate Lange added 15 kills, six digs and seven aces, and Lily Kramer had six kills and four aces. Bacon, which finishes 6-7, was led by Julia Baehr with seven kills and Kiera Stewart with nine assists.