Choate Proves Challenge to Volleyball, Lose in Final Set

For the first time since the end of last season, the Exeter girls’ volleyball team came up short, losing for the first time this season. The team that beat them on Saturday: Choate, the same team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year. The team dropped this bout 3-2. After losing the first two games 16-25 and 11-25, the Big Red rebounded to win the next two games 25-21 and 25-18 to force a decisive fifth game. In this final game to fifteen, Choate won 17-15, having needed to win by two.

Exeter gave the Wild Boars their biggest challenge since the beginning October of last year. Big Red had game point on two different occasions in the fifth set, but could not finish out the set as Choate came back to win. The squad pushed Choate to their limit, but that still was not enough for the Big Red. “Everyone was pissed. Everyone was down. We were trying to figure out what we could have done better,” said prep Chloe Scocimara.

While the team was missing stud upper Peace Kabari due to a basketball tournament and could have used her to counter Choate’s middle hitter, they refused to use that as their sole excuse. Upper Katya Scocimara talked about how the passing could have been better in the first two sets to have avoided going down two games to none early. Choate was also, by far, the strongest opponent the Big Red has faced so far this season, so there was certainly an adjustment to be made to the level of play Exeter was up against. This contributed to their slow start. Overall, the final three sets of the game showed the team just the type of volleyball they are capable of playing when they are pumping on all cylinders. As upper Michelle Bosche said, “We were one point away from coming back against one of the best, if not the best, team in our league and we have a lot to work on, but it just showed how good we can be if we get focused.”

Exeter did not have much time to recover from the Choate game as they had a matchup against Ethel Walker School right after and then a game versus Governor’s on Monday night. Big Red won both of those matches by a score of 3-1. Against EWS, the team came out with a fire burning in them after just having lost to Choate. This game was much more similar to the ones displayed by the team before with scores of 25-9, 20-25, 28-26, and 25-11. Against Governor’s, fatigue, both mental and physical, showed, but Exeter was still able to pull out the W with scores of 25-17, 25-15, 23-25, and 25-18. Although the scores for the team’s latter two games were impressive, upper Zaidee Laughlin believes that the team seen against Choate is the team . “We played the best we have ever played together and with the best chemistry we’ve experienced this year,” she said.

Exeter will have another chance to play like that when they face an undefeated (Loomis plays Choate Wednesday, so you might want to check this before press) Loomis Chaffee team at home at 1:00.