RAMS ON A ROLL

Cheshire sweeps Guilford to remain perfect

CHESHIRE — It’s been three years since the Cheshire girls’ volleyball team has completed a perfect regular season.

Back in both 2017 and 2018, the Rams finished 18-0. Now they are just four matches away from another perfect season.

Cheshire won its 16th consecutive match of the season by sweeping Guilford in three sets (25-12, 25-8, 25-20) Monday night to improve to 16-0 with four matches left in the regular season.

“We are still working on stuff, but I’m very happy with what’s going on,” Cheshire coach Sue Bavone said. “We had some juniors last year who didn’t get to play a lot, but they’ve stepped it up this year.”

Cheshire outside hitter Avery Mola (13 kills Monday night) said there is some pressure with the undefeated record.

“Some teams want to come in and beat us,” Mola said. “They’re out for blood and stuff, but we’re really proud of ourselves with our record.”

Bavone changed some of her strategy Monday night.

“I knew they were going to play a scrappy defense and clog things up,” she said. “Our goal was to try and find the floor and that’s why we tipped a lot instead of swinging. They always had a lot of defenders back and we wanted to mix it up.”

Guilford struggled to put any big rallies together in the first two sets. In the final set, the Grizzlies trailed from the start, but put rallies together in both the middle and then at the end of the set scored four straight points to close to 24-20.

However, Mola put the match away with a blast that Guilford couldn’t return.

“We have a good compliment

of hitters, but Avery just puts an exclamation point on things,” Bavone said.

Guilford dropped to 8-7 with the loss. The Grizzlies had handed Cheshire it’s only loss in a set last month in a 3-1 match.

“I think our girls came in a little bit timid tonight playing a team with a higher level of play,” Guilford coach Marisa Ceneri said. “The more errors and mistakes you make, the more you give the other team points. Tonight was based on mistakes.”

Dave Phillips / For Hearst Connecticut Media Cheshire's Tess Givens keeps her eye on the ball on a return from Guilford's Corrine Puchalski during a volleyball match Monday night.

Dave Phillips / For Hearst Connecticut Media Cheshire's Grace Downing sets the ball for a hitter during a volleyball match Monday night.