The Ansonia volleyball team heads into the final two weeks of the regular season looking to make a final push for the post season.
The Chargers took on Torrington on Wednesday night and came away on the short end of a 3 – 1 margin by scores of 14 – 25, 25 – 22, 20 – 25 and 21 – 25.
Ansonia, armed with just two seniors, Kristen Pitney and Genesis Espinoza under head coach Brian Casey and assistant coach Kevin Moore, came up short to start the season at 1 – 3.
A three game winning streak righted the ship but Ansonia took a tailspin into a 1 – 3 record over the last four games to come into the contest at 5 – 6.
Torrington at 6 – 5 is starting to peak with five 3 – 0 shutouts along the way.
Sarah Phipps (14 assists) and Courtney Ruth (5 aces) kept the Raiders from running away with it but Ansonia came up short and fell to 5 – 7 on the season.
“We started to come around in game two,” said coach Casey. “We are a young team so every mistake tends to multiply itself.”
Torrington broke out on top first with a flurry of shots in game one. Phipps recorded an ace in serve to wake up the Chargers and Alyssa Goggi (six blocks, 11 kills, five aces) strung together a run in serve to tie the game at 6 – 6.
The Raiders kept up the pressure and built an 18 – 10 advantage and everything went wrong for the Chargers as they couldn’t close the gap. Goggi had back-to-back kills but it did little to slow down Torrington as they pulled away with a 25 – 14 win.
In game two Ansonia brought on Venessa Blackwell and Courtney Ruth as it seemed to stem the tide. The Chargers battled back from a deficit when Maria Bakousis put on a run in serve to close the gap at 11 – 9.
Jenna Wagenblatt (11 kills) proved to be too much in the front row for the Raiders as they hung on and tied the game at 18 – 18. Bakousis nailed an ace and back-to-back kills from Goggi again gave the Chargers a spark.
Phipps served up game point and Goggi finished it off with a kill to tie the match at 1 – 1 in the 25 – 22 win.
“This was a game that we needed to show ourselves,” added Casey. “We don’t tend to recover quickly when we make mistakes.”
“We have to just keep working at it. Blackwell and Ruth came on to give us a spark but we are still lacking consistency.”
Ansonia took a brief lead in game three when Allison Singlinger dropped an ace into the far corner. Torrington battled back and took a 13 – 9 lead. Chrysta Currier gave the Raiders a lift when her run in serve opened up a 19 – 13 advantage.
Goggi with an ace and Ruth with a pair of aces down the stretch wasn’t enough as Torrington escaped with a hard fought 25 – 20 win to take a 2 – 1 advantage into game four.
The Chargers pulled out all the stops and continually built a comfortable cushion trying to force a game five. Courtney Egan served up a run to open up a 16 – 10 advantage.
Torrington came storming back with Kelsey Lavallo and Kyla Pollutro leading the way and suddenly it was a 19 – 19 game. Ansonia could do little to slow down the comeback as the Raiders pulled out a 25 – 21 win to win the match by a 3 – 1 margin.
“We have a couple of tough games coming up and I think that will help us competitively if we are to make the NVL or state tournament,” said Casey.
“We have a couple of games at the end of the season that we could win to get in but we need to be ready to take it to the next level and the teams this week will help us to get there.”
Ansonia will take on Seymour on Friday followed by St. Paul of Bristol on Monday. Next week the Chargers will face Naugatuck on Wednesday and Kennedy on Friday.
