Volleyball Crushes Big Blue Twice, Moves on to Semi-Finals at Taft

EXETER - The Exeter home crowd erupted in a medley of roaring screams and cheers on Saturday as they surrounded the team of Big Red volleyball girls. On Wednesday, the team gave their faithful fans a chance to do it again, winning the first round of playoffs in a rematch against Andover. The tumultuous level of excitement was more than a response to just ordinary wins.The drought is finally over. After their strongest season of the decade, the girls ended Andover’s long-held dominance over volleyball. In fact, the girls had not even taken a set off Big Blue since 2010 until their 3-1 2013 E/a victory. Big Red capped the 12-6 regular season with a historic win, ending a losing-streak dating back to the 2007 E/a games. Although the team had given up a close match to Andover in an away game earlier this season in mid-October, Big Red, backed by a strong base of young talent, hit back with a vengeance.This E/a win gave them a berth into the first round of the Interscholastic playoffs, and another chance to defeat their rivals. “We went in with the mindset that we were going to compete as best we could, minimize our errors, and that we were more than capable of winning,” senior co-captain Kaelina Lombardo said. “We had had close games when we played Andover before. We were extremely scrappy all game and played with confidence. I’m very proud of the team’s versatility.”The result of the E/a matchup, as well as two games prior to the historic victory, demonstrate an incredible rate of improvement. On October 28th and November 2nd, Big Red volleyball crushed Governors Academy and Northfield Mount Hermon 3-0 and 3-1 respectively. Only a month before, Big Red and barely managed a 3-1 victory against Governors and lost a one-sided match 1-3 to NMH. Even to Andover a month before, girls volleyball had lost 0-3, not even managing a set in their favor. The E/a and playoff victories show a complete turnaround.Lower Zaidee Laughlin credits a strong defense for the girls’ spectacular performance. “I think defense has been a main focus of ours this season, and it’s paying off,” said Laughlin. Laughlin added that their offense has always been strong, but that the team has given up points, games, even matches, due to an unbalanced defense.Entering their first Interscholastic quarterfinal since 2011, the girls had high hopes due to the result of their recent Andover matchup. The first two sets proved to be very tight, with each team consistently trading points. Big Red took victories in both of these sets, however, taking a 2-0 lead in the match. Andover took a commanding lead in the third set, taking as much as a five-point lead. The girls stayed strong, however, and crawled their way back, eventually tying Andover and continuing the set beyond 25 points. Finally, the Big Red girls put it away, taking a 30-28 win.As Exeter advances on in the playoffs, lower Taylor Jean-Jacques is aiming high, as are her teammates. “We hope to win Interschols,” Jean-Jacques said. “We hope to keep [playing hard] every day in practice as well as in matches to become champions by the end of the season.”