ITEM PHOTO BY: KATIE MORRISON.
Classical’s Skylar Crayton hits the ball over the net.
By Katie Morrison
LYNN — The Classical volleyball team celebrated its senior night in style, sweeping rival English, 3-0, at Classical on Friday evening.
The Rams (8-8), who are on the bubble for the tournament, topped English, 3-0, earlier this season. This time around, Classical was helped by the return of Soneta Srey, who missed part of the season due to an illness. Srey, who sat out the first matchup with English, returned to the team Monday, and has been making an immediate impact. Srey finished the match with seven digs and six kills.
In the first set of the evening, Classical’s Alytah Noum helped the Rams jump out to a quick lead with four service points. Jill Bowden got English on the board with a kill to stop the momentum. But a 6-0 run from Classical, led by Pamela Dias behind the line, helped create more separation, and the Rams built a 24-13 lead. An ace from Lizzie Troisi sealed the set for Classical, 25-13.
With Noum serving, the Rams jumped out to an early 7-0 lead before English coach Mike Haddad called a timeout. The talk with his team seemed to help English get back on track, as it kept a long volley going before Srey came through with a kill to put Classical up by eight. The Bulldogs trailed 12-2, but stayed in the game and made it competitive. Bowden gave English four service points late in the game, but in the end the Rams took it, 25-15.
Haddad said that one area the Bulldogs need to work on is stopping a run.
“After a server has gotten two or three points in a row, you can feel it, you can see it in the players. They get demoralized and it’s hard for them to shake it off,” Haddad said. “Then two or three points become six or seven.
“The second game, they lost a few points right in the beginning, but then they started to turn it on halfway through the game, and they had such a deficit, and I was very impressed how they were able to bring it from 2-11 to 15-25.”
The Rams had little trouble putting away the third set. Skylar Crayton turned in a big performance, with nine kills and two blocks on the night.
“Skylar just had a great game,” said Classical coach Frank DeLuca. “She’s only a sophomore. She’s been playing really well lately.”
Noum finished with six digs, as did Emma Dejoie. Maggie McHale helped facilitate the offense with seven assists.
For English, Haddad credited Bowden, who had 12 hits, Lindsey Lannon for her offense, and Lily Vu in the serving game.
“Even though the outcome was the same (as last time we played Classical), I saw a lot of improvement in my players, particularly my front line players,” Haddad said. “We had more hits this game than in most games this season, and definitely more than we had the last time we played them.”
The Rams have four games remaining; two Northeastern Conference matchups (Revere and first-place Danvers) and two Lynn City Tournament games.
“What it comes down to is a big game with Revere, which beat us the first time (by scores of 25-10, 25-21 and 25-23),” DeLuca said. “It’ll be an uphill climb. We were right in there, but they beat us in three. Hopefully we’ve improved and they didn’t. We’ll have to come up with a strategy to get past (Meaghan Gotham and Valentina Pepic, who both stand over six feet tall), but they killed us last time.”
The Rams visit Revere on Tuesday.