LYNNFIELD — The Lynnfield volleyball team only suffered a slight hiccup in Wednesday evening’s Cape Ann League Tournament semifinal game, putting together a solid effort to earn a 3-1 win over Ipswich to punch its ticket to the CAL Tournament Final. The Pioneers won by set scores of 25-18, 25-13, 20-25, 25-18.
“We’ve got a scrappy team, and they battle for every single ball,” said Lynnfield coach Brent Ashley. “Ipswich definitely made us work out there, especially in the third set, but we were able to keep an even keel and take home the win.”
Sophomore outside hitter Ella Gizmunt — who was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association Player of the Week for Massachusetts on Wednesday — led the offensive attack for Lynnfield with a career-high 18 kills.
“It’s a really cool honor for her, and she’s so humble she just wanted to focus on the game and the rest of the season,” said Ashley. “She’s such a talented player as only a sophomore, and she’s just getting better. So for her to get honored with that award and then come out and put up a career high in kills, that’s a pretty cool thing.”
Also contributing heavily to the win was Sarah Foley, who had an impressive 27 assists in just her first game back after being injured all season.
“Sarah did an incredible job of jumping right back into things and making an impact, because she basically had to relearn everything after I switched up all her rotations while she’s been gone,” said Ashley. “She came in today and drilled down on all the new stuff, and she came out (Wednesday) and made a seamless transition.”
The Pioneers got off to a quick start in the first set, jumping out to a 7-3 lead before stretching it to 14-6 and forcing an Ipswich timeout. After the Pioneers pushed their lead to 20-10, Ipswich went on a small run to get back into things. But Lynnfield was just too strong in the first set, taking it 25-18 and getting into the driver’s seat.
The second set was much of the same, with the Pioneers jumping ahead 9-2 before Ipswich called a timeout. It didn’t help much, as Lynnfield pushed its lead to 21-12 before easily earning a 25-13 set victory.
Ashley then switched up some rotations and tried some new things in the third set, but they didn’t quite work out. Ipswich battled its way back into the set, taking a 20-12 lead before Lynnfield went on a small rally to make it close. But Ipswich had the upper hand in this set, notching the final three points to win the set 25-20 and keep the match alive.
But in the fourth set, Lynnfield took control again. After some back and forth early on, the Pioneers gained a foothold and pushed its lead to 18-6 before Ipswich called a timeout. The Tigers went on a rally from there to get to within four points, but the Pioneers closed the set on a 4-1 run to win the set 25-18 and secure the match.
Lynnfield (10-1) now moves on to the CAL Tournament Final, where the Pioneers will take on North Reading Friday evening (5). North Reading advanced to the Final after its semifinal game against Newburyport — the only team to beat Lynnfield all season — was canceled due to a positive COVID-19 test on Newburyport’s side.
“A lot of the changes we’ve been making over the past week or so were geared toward Newburyport after that loss a couple of weeks ago, so now we’ve got 24 hours to break down the North Reading film and switch some things up,” said Ashley. “We know that North Reading has a great middle hitter in Anna Bryk, and we saw a pretty good preview of a good middle hitter in Ipswich (Wednesday). But more than that, we know that North Reading always gives us trouble. And, as a senior-heavy team, they want this win. We know we’re going to have to bring our best game if we want to get the win Friday.”