RallyNorth.net

Londonderry caps perfect season

Saturday, November, 06 By Jeff Hamrick

DERRY — On a day when the great filly Zenyatta was unable to wrap up her career undefeated, the Londonderry girls volleyball team had no such problems finishing off its stellar two-year run.

Winning their 35th straight match, the top-seeded Lancers capped a perfect, dominating season by defeating third-seeded Salem in three straight games yesterday at Pinkerton High School. The Londonderry seniors not only won their second consecutive Division 1 title, but they also avenged their only loss of the past two years.
“This one is better,” Megan Schwarz said, comparing the two titles. “Just being undefeated as a senior.”

On the season, no opponent won as many as two games in any match, and the Lancers defeated 18 of their 22 opponents in straight games.

“Division 1 was kind of up and down all year,” Londonderry coach Peter Willis said. “Teams were kind of beating each other up. We were the one constant all year long. We delivered a consistent performance game in and game out.

“The one test we had left was Salem because we hadn’t (played) them all season, and hadn’t played them since losing to them (last September). This was the time to clear the books and square all accounts, and we did that very, very well tonight.”

It was Schwarz who did the most significant damage, taking control in the third game, drilling four kills and serving on four points as Londonderry (22-0) scored 12 of the game’s final 14 points.

“It was time to finish them off,” said Schwarz, who had a match high 21 kills.

The Lancers jumped on the Blue Devils (18-4) in the first game, breaking open a 4-4 tie with a 5-0 run before winning the final eight for a convincing 25-10 win.

Salem, which had won 11 consecutive and 13 of its previous 14 matches, stayed close in the second. In a game that featured 13 ties, Salem had two-point leads five times and even lead 21-18.

“They had momentum, and we just needed to get it back,” said Katie Schwarz, who had six kills and 10 digs. “We ended up doing it, which was really good.”

Once again it was Megan and Katie Schwarz , who helped the Lancers rally. The twin sisters combined for seven kills as Londonderry scored eight of the game’s final 11 points en route to a 26-24 win.

“They’ll be the first ones to tell you that passing makes a difference,” Willis said. “We had kids stepping up in every point and making a key pass or a key dig. But (the twins) are incredible finishers. And you could tell when we got a little bit of space in game three that it was off to the races.”

Amy Johnson had 34 assists for Londonderry, while Salem was led by Jacqueline Cone (14 kills and 12 digs), Melissa Ouellet (nine kills, two blocks), Sarah Scott (27) and Steph Long (21 digs).

“I think we played well at times,” Salem coach Dan Young said. “I think we gave it our all, but we just made too many unforced errors and didn’t put enough pressure on them. I think we gave the third game away a little bit ... But it says a lot about a team that started the season 4-3 to have the will to go through all of it.”