Dartmouth volleyball believes it has what it takes to make a deep playoff run
DARTMOUTH — During Sunday night’s spaghetti team dinner, Dartmouth High girls volleyball coach Rachel Lassey got out a piece of poster board and wrote the word, “Believe.”
Each of Dartmouth’s players signed it.
As they entered the Carlin Lynch Activity Center on Monday night for their Div. 2 Round of 16 match, each player tapped the sign.
“The flame is burning,” Lassey said. “They want it bad. We’re in a great position right now. We know we’re going to have a battle every single game but we believe.
“We believed when we played against Barnstable (in the regular season) and we beat one of the best teams in the state in three and we’re going to believe the rest of the way through. If everyone is on board with that, the things you’re capable of are amazing.”
Fourth-seeded Dartmouth controlled play throughout a 3-0 sweep of No. 13 Canton to punch the team’s second-straight trip to the Elite 8.
“I’m super excited,” Lasseys said. “We’re back to the Elite 8 and we’ll see what we can do.
“Our goal is to keep going.”
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Ava Crane, one of four seniors on the team, is determined to keep playing for as long as possible.
“I’m not going to think of the end yet because it hasn’t come,” she said. “I think we can make it pretty far in the playoffs.”
Against Canton, Crane went 27 of 30 at the net with a team-high 12 kills.
“There’s a lot of energy. We hype each other up as much as we can,” Crane said. “We’re just making the most of our season right now.”
Crane wasn’t the only threat at the net for Dartmouth. Junior middle hitter Adeline Ablett had seven kills while senior right side Erynn Jasparro went 11 for 11 with four kills. Junior outside hitter Brooke Davis chipped in with four kills and junior middle hitter Haley Jenkins added three.
“If you pass it to anyone, anyone can spike it,” Crane said. “Anyone can kill it. I have faith in every single one of the players.”
Lassey added, “We have so many weapons at the net you never know where we’re going to go. It’s the goal every year, but it doesn’t always work out that way. We can literally rely on every single hitter to get the job done. We got everybody. If Lauren (Augusto) digs a ball, she’s going to hit a ball too. It’s a beautiful thing.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
The first set was close to start, but Dartmouth used a string of six straight serves by junior Gaby Velazquez to turn a 5-5 tie into an 11-5 advantage. Dartmouth went on to seal the 25-14 with three straight service aces from Velazquez.
“I feel like I finally got a hold of it,” said Velazquez, who finished with 14 service points, six aces and 15 digs. “I’m starting to finally get it and get some confidence.”
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Dartmouth jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead in the second set and never looked back as Crane had six of her kills down the stretch for a 25-17 win.
Canton led early on in the third set before Dartmouth distanced itself with serving from Jenkins and hitting from Ablett, Jasparro and Crane. A service ace by Velazquez clinched a 25-14 win and sweep.
“Dartmouth is relentless,” said Canton head coach Patricia Cawley. “They don’t let the ball fall. They’re a team of athletes. It’s something I’m trying to get my team to emulate.
“I told them before this match that they had exceeded our expectations and we were going to come in here and give it our all and see what happens. I don’t think we showed what we’re capable of, but they did their best and tried their hardest.”
WHAT IT MEANS: The win was the fourth straight for Dartmouth (19-3), which will host No. 12 Masconomet (17-5) at 5 p.m. on Friday. … Canton finished the year with an overall record of 14-8.
CAWLEY ON THE SEASON: “We’ve had an up-and-down year. We only had one six-position player (Jessica Wright) back. We started out slow. We had a lot of illness so we were up and down for weeks. The last three weeks we kind of came together. We played much better down the stretch.”
LASSEY: “We came back to chemistry and chemistry is firing on all levels. Lauren is taking charge and running the offense the way she knows how. We’re killing it defensively. They don’t get as much credit, but without them we can’t do anything.”
STATS: Davis finished with 16 service points. Augusto dished out 26 assists. Olivia Arruda had seven digs. … For Canton, Wright had five kills while senior Riley Costa had four kills and one block.
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Dartmouth volleyball beats Canton in Div. 2 Round of 16
