Waterford making most of its second chance
Last season's Waterford volleyball team thought it had a pretty special group. It was seeded fifth in the 2018 CIAC Class M tournament and needed to win just one more game to reach the quarterfinals.
The Lancers were upset by No. 12 Woodland in the second round. At home. And in five games.
Waterford didn't want to go through that misery again and has used this season as its second chance to win a title.
The No. 11 Lancers have blitzed their way through the Class M tournament and play top-seeded and defending champion Seymour in Saturday's 1 p.m. final at East Haven High School.
“Last season was tough,” Waterford senior setter Sabrina Kobyluck said. “We've taken what we did last year and we've made it 100 percent better.”
Waterford (21-5) is playing for its second state title. The Lancers won the 2015 CIAC Class M title in their only other championship appearance.
“I think the girls felt the heartbreak of last year,” Waterford coach Matt Maynard said. “They knew what a special team we had. They knew we had good senior leadership. This year's seniors have really stepped up and said we want to go out differently, we want to control our destiny, so they've done that. They've bought in, they've pushed, they worked hard all year and now we're kind of seeing something special.”
The Lancers are also trying to become the Eastern Connecticut Conference's eighth state volleyball champion. The others are Norwich Free Academy (2008, Class LL), East Lyme (2010-11, Class L), Ledyard (2012, Class M) and Lyman Memorial (Class S, 2016 and 2018). The Bulldogs will attempt to defend their title against Hale-Ray following the M final.
Waterford kicked into high gear during the ECC Division I tournament. It beat
second-seeded Lyman Memorial in a four-game semifinal before sweeping Fitch to win its first conference tournament title.
“All of us want it really bad,” Waterford senior Ryleigh Gonyo said. “Not that we didn't want it last year, but every single person, especially the seniors this year, we have a lot of passionate seniors on this team who want to go out there and make this season the best because this is our last one.
“I feel like we feed off each other this year. We just want to make it the best end of our volleyball careers.'
The Lancers have seven seniors. The others are Allesondra Folino, Jasmine Graciano, Rachel Miller, Briana Muckle and Hayley Wheeler.
Kobyluck believes having so many seniors has helped.
“We play every game like it's our last,” she said. “It's kind of hard not to put in that 100 percent effort.”
Seymour (24-1), like Waterford, dropped just one game over four tournament matches.
Seniors Kolby Sirowich (19 kills) and Faith Rousseau (11) helped the Wildcats to a three-game semifinal sweep over Weston.
Seymour senior Katie Anderson, at 6-foot-4, will be a problem Waterford must contend with up front.
“We know that they're a very scrappy team,” Gonyo said. n.griffen@theday.com
“I feel like we feed off each other this year. We just want to make it the best end of our volleyball careers.” WATERFORD SENIOR RYLEIGH GONYO