Two Losses and One Win for Girls Volleyball Last Week

Since getting off to a 4-0 start, inconsistency has marked the play of the Amity volleyball team. Including last week’s Southern Connecticut Conference losses to Cheshire (3-0) and Guilford (3-2) along with a 3-1 victory over Sheehan, Coach Paul Thees’ spikers are 9-8, which means they have lost 8 of their last 13 matches.

“Part of the problem is we played Cheshire twice and Shelton twice—that accounts for four of our losses,” Thees said. “There is no question that our inconsistent play has cost us.”

Cheshire’s undefeated (15-0) Rams put Amity away 25-17, 25-12, and 26-24.

According to Thees, “Cheshire is very good but I don’t think they intimidated us. Their team passes well and hits well. At the same time, we didn’t play well. Our passing wasn’t good and as a result, we didn’t end up with a lot of kills. On top of that, we were good on 54 of our 59 serves (91.5%) Fifty nine kills isn’t really a lot of kills for three games.”

Allison Denny led Amity with six kills. Sydnee Sousa added four kills and was good on all seven of her serves—with one ace. Setter Alyssa Mirmina recorded only 10 assists but added six digs and was good on all 10 serves. Dana Blydenberg chipped in with nine digs while Caitlin Strona put home all eight serves with two aces.

Thees added, “Cheshire dominated the entire match. They took the play to us. We were rarely if ever on the attack.”

The Lady Spartan plays quite well against Sheehan and spoiled the Titans’ Senior night by defeating them 3-1 (25-14, 18-25, 25-17, 25-23). Denney led the winners with a season-high 18 kills. In addition, she recorded 13 digs and was 20-20 from the service line with 8 aces.Foster added 13 digs and was perfect with her dozen serves.

Thees said, “Clair and Allison were fantastic! They both had outstanding nights.”

Kristen Post (eight kills), Jessica Malinconico (six kills,  six blocks), Strona (11 of 12 serves), Jessica Hoffer  (13 of 13 from the service line with two aces), and Mirmina  (16 of 16 serves with one ace and 28 assists) also had solid matches for the winners.

The Lady Spartans returned home last Friday to have Guilford ruin their Senior Night festivities. The Indians had previously defeated Amity 3-0 in Guilford and completed their series sweep with a 3-2 (26-28, 25-21, 25-18, 21-25, 15-8) win.

“Since it was Senior Night, I started the seniors. Fortunately, we were able to hold things together and win the first game. We split the next two games and were up 2-1, but our sloppy play and missed serves eventually caught up with us,” Thees said. “We missed seven serves, which is not our style. The bottom line is, we did not play well against Guilford.”

In addition to recording 34 assists, Mirmina was 24 of 25 from the service line. Strona added 17 of 18 with two aces and also had two blocks. Hoffer chipped in by landing 13 of her 14 serves with two aces and 12 digs.  Denny was good on 15 of her 16 serves and banged down a team-high 19 serves.

Malinconico added nine kills, 11 digs, and two blocks. Foster posted 11 assists and 13 digs.

Caitlin Sobolewski led the 14-2 winners with 15 kills, nine service points and three blocks. Setter Taylor White added 38 assists, nine service points, and three aces. Meg Goodrich recorded 18 kills and 10 digs.

Amity closes out the regular season Wednesday night in a 6:30 match at North Haven. On Saturday, the Black and Gold open play in the SCC tournament. The opponent, site, and time will be determined later in the week.