Dennis-Yarmouth High volleyball team and Vivian Castano ace Round of 16 playoff match

YARMOUTH -- The top-seeded Dennis-Yarmouth High girls volleyball team advanced to the Division 3 State quarterfinals after sweeping Groton-Dunstable, 3-0 (25-14 25-8 25-16), on Tuesday.

The Dolphins were leading the second set of the match by a slim 9-8 margin, that is, until sophomore Vivian Castano stepped to the service line.

What followed was a scoring run fitting of a No. 1 ranked team. With Castano serving, the Dolphins rattled off 16 consecutive points to turn a back-and-forth set into a blowout.

More:Breaking down the brackets: MIAA releases high school girls volleyball field

The variety of serves displayed by Castano even impressed herself.

"I didn't actually know I could spot serve," she said. "I practice it a lot of times, (but) it usually just doesn't go where I want (it) to."

Castano finished the match with 27 assists to go along with five aces from the service line.

More:Driven by last year's title game defeat, Dennis-Yarmouth volleyball has eyes on the prize

The Dolphins advance to the Elite Eight, where they'll host No. 8 Medfield on Friday on 5 p.m.

The service line was a weapon for D-Y all match. In addition to Castano, senior Grace Presswood caused problems with her serve throughout the match, and Eliana Castano had serving runs of her own. In total, the Dolphins nearly amassed an entire set's worth of points from aces, totaling 17 as a team.

"It's a big weapon, because we didn't have that in the beginning of the season, but if we can serve them off the court, that makes it easy (and we can) use it to our advantage." Presswood said.

But it was the 16 consecutive service points that really showed what this team is capable of. Not only were Vivian Castano's serves wreaking havoc, but the Dolphins were scoring in a variety of ways The Dolphins offense can be lethal in system, and in transition. Out of system, D-Y was still scored, which helped give the Dolphins breathing room in all three sets.

It's not luck that D-Y had that type of out-of-system success, Sisson said, rather something honed over time.

"We do practice that a lot, because I recognize sometimes I might want to put us out of system," Sisson said.

It all added up to a confident win for the Dolphins. Now just three games away from their ultimate goal, the road continues to get tougher, but they feel better equipped to handle the challenge of a run at a state title.

"I think last year was really big anticipation and thats what got the nerves, but I feel like this year we're a little more settled and we're ready," Castano said.

Perhaps the scariest thing for the remaining teams in D-Y's path, is that Presswood believes her team needs to be even more confident in all aspects of their game as the competition gets steeper.

"We need to make sure we're confident," Presswood said. "Sometimes that (a lack of confidence) gets the better of us... We need to have confidence (and) go after every point like it's the game point."

The players set the goal this season, and Sisson believes her team is understanding what it's going to take to get there.

"I think they're really excited," Sisson said. "Each one they realize it's getting closer and closer to our end goal, and I think that they're starting to work harder, and communicate a little bit more with each other on the court."

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Dennis-Yarmouth High girls volleyball sweeps in Division 3 Round of 16