Lions earn first win
Williams, Bucacci too much for Ponaganset
LINCOLN — Ponaganset had the most dominant player on the court Monday night against the Lincoln girls volleyball team, but it was the winless Lions who were the better team.
Ponaganset senior Elayna Remick had a match-high – by a large margin – 23 kills, but when the Division II-West was close, it was Lincoln middles Andrayah Williams and Carolina Bucacci who made winning plays to help the Lions experience the thrill of victory for the first time this season.
After serving her team to a win in the first game, Williams did her best work at the net in the final two games. The junior, who had never played volleyball prior to this season, recorded five kills. 11 solo blocks and four assisted blocks, while Bucacci had four kills and a pair of blocks in a 26-24, 25-21, 25-22 victory.
“I really don’t know what happened out there because this is my first year out here ever,” Williams said. “It feels so good to get a win and it feels so good knowing I can contribute to my team. We didn’t have our whole lineup today but coach [Lyndsey Sweeney] kept telling us that we have to fight as a team. This is something we definitely can build on.”
“We really wanted to win and we were just sick of losing,” Bucacci said. “We wanted to give it our all and we’ve really worked on hitting a lot in practice and it just clicked tonight. The passes were perfect and the sets were perfect, so we were just able to execute it. I hope we can build on this and I believe in this team.”
Lincoln (1-7 Division II-West) came into the match having only won two individual games all season, but unlike previous matches where the Lions allowed mistakes and service errors to get them down, they didn’t allow the Chieftains to go on too many damaging scoring runs. Outside of a poor start to the second game where the Lions gave up six straight points, the home side never trailed by more than seven points the rest of the match.
Ponaganset (1-5 Division II-West) led by at least three points in every game, but the home side battled back each time to secure the win.
“This feels really good,” Sweeney said. “There’s been a missing link all year, but it hasn’t been talent-wise. It feels like it was about momentum and the mistakes that happened were on our side of the net. It was nice tonight to see it finally come together.”
Remick and setter Emma Slaughter (15 assists and five aces) helped the visitors open up a seven-point advantage in the middle of the first game. Lincoln answered back to build a 1918 lead, but the Chieftains scored six of the next nine points to earn a pair of game points. After a Ponaganset error, Williams served three straight points to secure the win.
The Chieftains scored the first six points of the middle game, but then Williams rotated into the front row and proved to be a disrupting presence at the net. The junior inspired a 14-2 to give the Lions the lead. Ponaganset tied the game at 15, but Bucacci delivered a kill and Aliana Winn had an ace to help the Lions win the game by four.
Williams went back to work in the third game where her hitting and blocking helped the Lions build an 8-6 lead.
“[Williams] played really well, I’m really proud of her,” Bucacci said. “It’s really hard to play varsity right away after jumping into it and giving it her all. She’s grown so much in the last couple of weeks.”
Remick and Chieftains went on an 8-1 run to build a 16-11 advantage, but the Lions – for the third straight game – responded with strong passing to regain control of the match. The Lions went on an 8-0 run to take a 1916 lead. After the Chieftains stopped the run, Williams and Casey Weaver delivered kills to guide the Lions to the precipice of their first win.
“Our serve-receive was really good tonight,” Sweeney said. “Sam Kratman has been stepping up a lot in the back row with passing because she’s been coming in for Casey and playing well.”
With Williams at the service line, Bucacci produced the final kill of the night to secure the long-awaited victory.
“The middle really controlled the floor tonight and they picked really good spots,” Sweeney said. “There was a weakness in [Ponaganset’s] defense and the middle were able to find it. Andrahah’s net presence is only going to grow as she gets more experience and improves her volleyball IQ.”