LYNN — The Lynn City Volleyball Tournament was served up at Lynn Classical on Tuesday. In round one, the host Rams defeated Lynn Tech in straight sets of 25-11, 25-11, 25-20.
Classical was in control from the opening set, taking a commanding 11-4 lead before increasing its cushion to 22-6. Coach Chris LeBlanc credited his team’s serving.
“I think, for us, what we’ve been struggling with early this season is our serve game. I thought, tonight, we served really well against them and I think we hardly had any errors, which makes it much more difficult for them to get out and run their offense,” LeBlanc said. “I think us pressuring them with our serves got things rolling for us. Then, Kenze (Lantano) and Riches (Won Tep) got going and started to put the balls down. In that first set, Riches was putting the balls down from the back row over and over again. It was nice to see.”
Unfortunately for the Tigers, their second set saw much of the same. Tech had a hard time returning Classical’s serves.
“I think we haven’t been smart and, today, we wanted to focus on being smart and understanding the situation,” LeBlanc said. “We wanted to know when it was time to really push it and go all out and when it was time to take it off and make them work. I think, prior to tonight, we were just full speed ahead.”
Trailing by two sets, Tech continued to battle for every point and every play.
“We’re a brand new playing team,” said Tech coach Kaitlyn Wechsler. “All of these kids playing today, besides Elmer Duran, were on the team last year . . . but didn’t see playing time. We’re young and getting used to playing with each other on the court, against, arguably, one of the better teams we’ll face all season. I was happy with the way they fought and stuck with each other the whole game.”
Wechsler saw some positives during her team’s opener.
“There are so many things we can learn and grow from,” Wechsler said. “Our blocking I’m super impressed by and our defense was great against some really good hitters. I’m happy with the digs. We just need to improve our serving and our serve receive. There were a lot of bright spots.”
One player who stuck out with his blocking was right side hitter Dalvin Ruiz.
“He’s new to that position. He was on the team last year, but didn’t really get a chance to play and has been waiting and working for his opportunity,” Wechsler said. “I’m super happy to see him develop. He’s a big blocker on the right side, so that’ll be nice for us all season, watching him block against some of the big outside hitters we’re going to see.”
Bringing the energy with powerful spikes was Classical’s Maliek Brown.
“He had a really good game. Coming into the season, we had no idea who was going to be our outside hitter two. He’s really asserting himself in practice and in the game, showing that he wants that role,” LeBlanc said. “He’s impressed us as a coaching staff a lot. I couldn’t be more pleased with what he’s doing for us.”
Tech will face Lynn English on Tuesday, while the Rams battle KIPP Academy in the championship game (TBD).
“KIPP looks pretty good. I think they’ll push us. They have a couple of kids that can swing and I think they pass pretty well,” LeBlanc said. “Their setter runs a good offense. I just think we need to run a fast offense to try and make it difficult for them.”
