LYNNFIELD — After getting off to a blazing hot start in the opening set, the No. 2 Lynnfield volleyball team rode that momentum all the way to victory by taking down No. 34 Wahconah 3-0 in the Division 4 Round of 32 Saturday afternoon at Lynnfield High. The Pioneers won by set scores of 25-12, 25-20, 25-13.
“It was a bit up-and-down at times, but overall I think we played well out there and got the job done,” said Lynnfield coach Brent Ashley. “We got a lot of girls involved and we were able to stand up to some adversity at times, which is all you can ask for once the playoffs roll around.”
Star junior Ella Gizmunt continued to lead the way in the win for the Pioneers, notching 12 kills to go along with 10 aces and 10 digs. Grace Davie put up a big game with seven kills, while Giuliana Guarracino also notched seven kills.
“So much of our season this year has been the ‘feed Ella’ philosophy, and in this game I told her that I’m putting a cap on how many times she touches the ball,” said Ashley. “The setters needed to find different ways to incorporate people in the match, and a lot of girls had big games because of it.”
The Pioneers couldn’t have gotten off to a better start in the first set, racing ahead 6-0 before Wahconah could even notch a point. Lynnfield extended its lead to 10-2 before the Warriors called a timeout, and after a small run by Wahconah coming out of that timeout, the Pioneers rolled to an easy 25-12 set win.
But in the second set, things flipped. Wahconah came out hot and jumped out to a 5-0 lead, eventually pushing it to a 9-2 lead. But then, with the Warriors leading 14-7, Lynnfield went on a 9-1 run to jump ahead 16-15. The two teams traded two ties and three lead changes from there, but in the end the Pioneers were able to notch a few key points to take the set 25-20.
“We were trying some new things in that second set because we know we’ll have to expand our game if we want to beat some of the teams in our path,” said Ashley. “We had some growing pains there and we had to work through them, and it was good to talk through it and come out on the other side.”
Wahconah started the third set off hot as well, once again jumping ahead in the early going with a 6-0 lead. But then Lynnfield turned on the jets and tied the score at 11-11, and from there the Pioneers went on a 14-2 run to close out the set and win the match.
Lynnfield (17-4) moves on to the Division 4 Round of 16, where it will host No. 15 South Lancaster Wednesday evening (5) back at Lynnfield High.
“The crazy thing about this new tournament format is that you never know what some of these teams will bring to a game,” said Ashley. “These teams play different styles of volleyball because they play different opponents, so it’s all about adapting to that and finding ways to play our best volleyball every night.”