Hawks, ‘Hounds dual on the court
BEACON FALLS — Woodland held off Naugy on Monday night in a volleyball match that was much closer than the score might indicate.
The Hawks, who have already clinched the Iron Division, swept the Greyhounds 3-0. The loss snapped a three-match win streak for the ‘Hounds.
The win didn’t come as easy as the final score suggests. The scores of the match were 25-20, 25-22, and 25-22.
Naugy did a good job throughout the match of taking the Hawks out of their offensive flow and kept each set close. The Hawks came through with big points late — especially in the deciding third set.
The Greyhounds trailed 15-12 and stormed back in the final set. After a Woodland error, kills from Teree Perkins and two from Ally Mezzo Naugy held a 16-15 lead.
From there, the set became tied three more times before the Greyhounds capitalized on a Woodland error and an ace from Mezzo and another kill from Perkins to take a 21-18 lead.
The Hawks regrouped and scored seven of the eight final points. Abbey Rosato finished with 10 kills, including two in the final run to end the third.
“We always seem to execute when we have to,” said Rosato, who also had two blocks. “We always talk about keeping the ‘mo-mo’ — the momentum.”
Carla Piccolo served up the final five points, including the rally that led to Rayel Smith’s go-ahead kill to give Woodland a 23-22 lead.
“We have to learn how to finish,” Naugy head coach Kevin Wesche said. “To Woodland’s credit, they kept their composure and went back to fundamentals.”
Woodland’s Sam White had 10 kills and Anna Khalid had eight, while Piccolo had 29 assist and four aces. On defense, Cam Caswell had 28 digs, three aces, two kills and two assists.
Naugy’s Megan Warnke had nine service points in the match.
The Greyhounds bounced back win a 3-2 win over Wolcott Wednesday to improve to 13-6. Erika Andreoli had 11 service points to go along with seven digs. Warnke had 13 service points and nine digs, while Lauren Burns added nine service points, six digs and four aces.
Naugatuck wraps up the regular season versus Terryville, an out-of-conference foe, Thursday. The Greyhounds will be the No. 4 seed in the NVL tournament, which starts Saturday. Naugy is scheduled to face No. 5 Wolcott at Wolcott High School at 2 p.m.
The Hawks pulled out the brooms again to sweep Watertown 3-0 on Wednesday. Rosato had 12 kills, four blocks and two assists. Karissa Wilkinson added three kills as Khalid pitched in seven kills, six aces and eight digs.
Woodland travels out of conference to face Amity Thursday to end the regular season.
Woodland heads into the NVL tournament the defending champs and once again at the top of their game. Woodland is the No. 2 seed in the tournament. The Hawks are scheduled to host No. 7 Ansonia on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
Woodland head coach Jim Amato sees room for improvement with his team.
“We have to minimize our errors,” Amato said. “That should point us in the right direction.”
