54°
GREENWICH, Conn. For the second time in less than two weeks, the Greenwich High School girls volleyball team had its heart broken by New Canaan.
The latest loss was definitely tougher to swallow as the Cardinals squandered a two-games-to-none lead and were serving for the match point in Game 5 of the conference quarterfinals.
The Rams refused to go away, however, as New Canaan dominated Game 3 and erased an eight-point Greenwich lead in Game 4 to force a deciding final showdown. The Cardinals led 14-11 and served for the match point, but botched the serve. New Canaan scored the next four points to stun Greenwich 3-2 (25-17, 25-21, 20-25, 22-25, 14-16).
Youve to hand it to New Canaan. They didnt make the mistakes at crucial points, Greenwich head coach Steve Lapham said. We had multiple opportunities to end it. A few points here and there and that was the difference.
New Canaans Andrea Mullaney seemed to have an answer for every Greenwich volley, racking up 21 kills against the Cardinals. Mullaney had six straight points in Game 4 to help the Rams inch back from Greenwichs huge lead.
Our serve went into the toilet for a while. Too many unforced errors on our side of the court, Lapham said. We need to fix those errors going into states now. We just need to get back the fight weve had all season.
Greenwich was led by Mirei Kato (14 kills, 9 service points, 7 digs) and Ebba Mark (11 kills, 11 service points, 7 aces). Xanthi Katsigiannis contributed 27 assists and 11 service points.
Greenwich will be seeded 11th in the state Class LL state tournament when it begins next Thursday.
Follow Eric Gendron on Twitter for the latest Main Street Connect coverage of Fairfield County sports. Like The Daily Greenwich on Facebook.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Greenwich and receive free news updates.
