Hawks reach final

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Greyhounds fall in quarterfinals of NVLs

Woodland celebrates after defeating Torrington 3-2 in Waterbury on Tuesday in the NVL semifinals. Woodland advanced to the NVL finals. –RA ARCHIVE
Woodland celebrates after defeating Torrington 3-2 in Waterbury on Tuesday in the NVL semifinals. Woodland advanced to the NVL finals. –RA ARCHIVE

WATERBURY — Abbey Rosato has played girls volleyball for four years at Woodland High, and she’s never seen a game extend all the way to 31 points. Neither have teammates Sarah Reilly and Anna Khalid.

Neither has Torrington coach Christine Gamari, and her career spans four years in high school, four years in college and four years as head coach of the Red Raiders.

So it was a bit unprecedented when Woodland had to battle all the way to 31 points in the opening game against Torrington in their Naugatuck Valley League semifinal Tuesday night at Wilby High. That set the tone for the match as Woodland fought its way to a 3-2 victory to reach the championship match against Seymour.

The final game is Thursday at 7 p.m. at Kennedy High School.

Seymour disposed of a gutty Wolcott team in the second semifinal, 3-0, to set up the showdown of the NVL’s top two seeds.

It certainly wasn’t surprising that No. 2 Woodland and No. 3 Torrington played a marathon match that the Hawks won, 31-29, 25-19, 19-25, 23-25, 15-13. The two teams haven’t played any other kind this season. In fact, in three five-game matches (all won by the Hawks) the combined score is Woodland 314, Torrington 308.

Playing Torrington “is exhilarating,” said the Hawks’ Rosato.

For Torrington (15-5), though, it has been excruciating.

Gamari lauded her team for never giving up. Down 2-0, the Red Raiders rallied in the third and fourth games to even the match. The final game didn’t see either side ahead by more than two points.

“Playing in the NVL final would be nice,” said Gamari. “But I saw a lot of fight in this team. I told them before Game 5, ‘I’ll take you in a fight any day.'”

Woodland’s Khalid liked the intensity her teammates brought to the match, too.
“We always stayed pumped and kept our energy up,” she said.

Samantha White led Woodland (18-4) with 16 kills and 16 digs. Rosato had 13 kills and four blocks, Khalid 11 kills, five aces and five blocks, and Reilly five kills.

The championship match gives Woodland, which dispatched of Ansonia 3-0 in the quarterfinals, a chance to avenge its only NVL loss. Two weeks ago, Seymour (21-1) rallied after losing the first game to beat the Hawks, 3-1.

No. 4 Naugatuck fell to No. 5 Wolcott 3-1 in the quarterfinals Oct. 25.

Kara Klimaszewski led the way for Naugatuck (14-7) with 14 points, while Ally Mezzo had five points and six kills.