LYNNFIELD — It may be cliche, but it truly was a shame that one team had to lose Tuesday’s Sweet 16 Division 3 volleyball battle between the No. 4 Lynnfield Pioneers and visiting No. 13 Lynn Classical Rams.
The Rams were looking to pull off the biggest upset of the tournament — and they were in prime position to do it and send the Pioneers packing. Classical took a 2-0 lead after taking the first set, 25-22, and the second, 25-23.
But the Pioneers had other ideas, rallying to win the final three sets (25-15, 26-24, 15-9) to seal a 3-2 win and live for another day, when they face No. 5 Old Rochester (TBD).
Lynnfield junior captain Audrey Manning (16 assists) and Classical senior captain Brooke Braswell (10 digs) staged a real slugfest, matching each other with 30 kills. Classical senior captain Emma Chevalier (41 assists), Lynnfield senior captain Alexia Vaquerano (18 kills) and Lynnfield sophomore Carina DeLeo (20 assists) also played major roles.
Pioneers’ coach Brent Ashley said he had no doubts his team would find a way to win.
“We just stuck to our gameplan,” he said. “Down 0-2, I said, ‘You guys have this.’ I told my seniors that the team needed to hear from them. I think that struck a cord with the younger players who said, ‘I’m just going to get that ball.’ I think we benefitted from the fact that the girls said they needed a day off on the weekend. Giving them a day off gave them that added energy, I think, to be strong and finish at the end.”
“I don’t have a lot of quibbles with the way anyone played tonight,” said Classical coach Chris LeBlanc. “Everybody gave everything they had, to be honest. Was the execution perfect? No. But the effort, the desire, and the want was there. As a coach, that’s all I can ask for when it comes to tournament play. I could not be more proud of the effort.”
Both teams came into the match riding hot streaks. The Rams, who had won 15 consecutive matches since losing to Lynnfield 3-0 in early September, had not dropped a set in October. The Pioneers came in with an 11-match winning streak and had not lost a match at home all season.
Classical came out firing on all cylinders, taking a back-and-forth first set 25-22 — one in which neither team led by more than three. Trailing 23-21 after an Olivia Kelter winner, the Pioneers pulled to within one, 23-22, after an ace from Elliana Moretti. Classical regrouped, closing out the set with Braswell’s ninth kill of the set and a soft kill to space from Emma Chevalier.
Braswell continued to dominate in the second set, racking up another eight kills and helping the Rams lead by five on three occasions, but Lynnfield fought back to tie the match 23-23 only to lose it with back-to-back hitting errors.
The third set was also tight with Lynnfield clinging to a 12-9 lead early.
Enter junior Thayer Sutherland. On her serve, the Pioneers went on an 7-0 run to stretch the lead to 19-9, the big points being three kills from Vaquerano, a pair of kills from Manning, and a pair of Sutherland aces.
The fourth set was about as close as it gets. With a four-point lead at 24-20 after a monster winner from Moretti, Lynnfield looked to be in great shape to force a fifth set. Classical had other ideas, rattling off four straight points to tie the set, 24-24. But Lynnfield rallied to win the next two points to clinch the set and tie the match 2-2.
“We should have finished them in the fourth set,” LeBlanc said. “We just couldn’t finish it and that let them hang around. It’s their home court. They’re proud. That, I think, was the difference — not being able to finish it.”
With momentum on their side, the Pioneers jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the fifth set. Down 10-3, the Rams made things interesting and clawed their way back into it, pulling to within two at 11-9 and three at 12-9. But with sophomore serving specialist Sophia Shaievitz serving, the Pioneers slammed the door shut, winning the next three points to seal the come-from-behind win.
Ashley highlighted the play of Manning, Moretti (6 assists) and Sutherland (7 aces, 6 kills).
“How did Audrey not run out of gas? It was like her gas tank was unlimited,” Ashley said. “The six kills Thayer had were needed because they came at times when it wasn’t working. Carina set the outside to her and it worked today. She saved our butt, even on that last play.”
LeBlanc highlighted the play of freshman Karen Diaz Cruz (10 kills) and senior Jada Tejada (4 kills).
“Karen is only a freshman who will be with us for the next three years. She played really really well for us, as did Jada,” he said.
LeBlanc said senior Azriella Jorge (9 digs) and Stacia Wonoski (9 digs) also played well.
