Facing off against Brien McMahon High for the third time this year, the Greenwich High girls volleyball team made quick work of their opponent in the second round of the LL state tournament with a 3-0 (25-15, 25-6, 25-14) sweep to advance to the quarterfinals.
“That was probably the cleanest match we had all year in three complete sets,” Greenwich head coach Steve Lapham said. “Once we get into a rhythm, Abbie [Wolf] is just overpowering. Maggy [Egan] was putting good balls up in front of her. We got in a good grove, hopefully we can keep this kind of play going through the tournament. If we play like this, it’s going to be tough to beat us.”
The Senators defeated the Cardinals in the regular season in five sets, but Greenwich came back to eliminate McMahon in both the FCIAC tournament and now the CIAC tournament.
Abbie Wolf led the Cardinals with 18 kills while Morgan Rafferty recorded eight aces, seven kills, three digs and two assists.
“When McMahon came to our court a few weeks ago on Senior night, Meredith Pellegrino was lights out,” Wolf said following the win. “That memory is still pretty vivid. We knew this was win or go home. She still brought her A game, but our defense and our service game was incredible.”
McMahon, playing host to the match, held a brief 9-8 lead in the first set as the two teams familiarized themselves once again with each other.
However, it would be the last time Greenwich would trail McMahon the whole match.
“Coach told us in the beginning of the year to play like you’re playing in the state championships,” Wolf said. “Now it’s really here. Today showed how strong we can be when we’re doing everything right. When we don’t give our opponents points off unforced errors, they can’t stop us.”
Following a 25-14 win in the first set, Greenwich would continue their dominance by opening up a 14-0 lead in the second set before McMahon got on the board.
Maggy Egan set the tone for the offense with 26 of Greenwich’s 31 assists while Libero Micaela Lew gave tremendous effort on the defensive side to limit the seventh-seeded Senators’ to just six points in the second set.
Greenwich ended the match with a 25-14 third set and advances to the LL quarterfinals against the second-seeded Amity on Saturday at 6:00.
