The Tigers of Lynn Tech (6-6) moved to .500 on the season with a home victory over KIPP on Friday, with set scores of 25-18, 12-25, 25-10, and 25-19.
Despite the visiting KIPP crowd traveling well, and winning the second set of the match, Tech overcame adversity to get the win in versatile fashion as many different players contributed from start to finish.
The statistics page was heavy on Friday. Senior Abeline Calixte led the team with eight kills, while freshman Lia Morales played the role of the facilitator with eight assists. Maria Groscos tacked on 10 digs, and Morales added seven aces as well.
Against a Panther team that had been victors of three straight, the home team came out with a spark. After Groscos began the game with two consecutive points off of serves, it was a back and forth affair. But in the end, KIPP hurt themselves by not being able to control the ball, and lost the set, 25-19.
The second set was a different story, however, and the Panthers clawed their way back to even things up, winning the set by a score of 25-12. Tech found it difficult to control balls off of opposing serves, and couldn’t handle the game winning point deflecting over the net and onto their side’s hardwood.
All great teams know how to respond, and that’s exactly what the Tigers did in the third set – winning in blowout fashion. Morales did a great job at tracking down opposing kill attempts, and junior Lesnee Izaguirre used her length to instill pressure and rack up multiple kills.
Ariana Camilo showed off her offensive prowess, serving as a threat to score on multiple parts of KIPP’s side of the court – sometimes just barely tapping the ball softly over the net, and other times sending a shot that would land right on the endline.
One word to describe Calixte in the third set: clutch. The veteran scored three of her team’s final four points, including the game winner.
“We’ve been kind of talking about that all year, and how we can’t give up and that volleyball is just a game of runs all the time and we just got to withstand and have more of them,” Tech Head Coach Kaitlyn Weschler said.
Groscos was seemingly everywhere on the court, something that caught the eye of her head coach.
“Maria, she always hustles super, super hard for us. Back row, front row, she plays all the way around,” Weschler said.
With Tech being just one set away from their sixth win, and the “let’s go Tigers” chants pouring in from their home faithful, they got it – ending the match with a 25-19 win in the final set. They scored the final three points, and had other scoring spurts of both five and six consecutive points at different points.
Next on the schedule for Tech is a road matchup against Whittier on Tuesday, Oct. 11.
“Whittier is an upper-division team,” Weschler said. “We know they’re going to be pretty tough, but we talked about it. If we play like this and with this type of energy, that we can play with anyone.”
Joey Barrett can be reached at [email protected]
