RHAM nets berth in final

In each of the last two seasons throughout its run to back-to-back CIAC Class M girls volleyball state championships, it has been the semifinal round that has been the tough one to get through for RHAM High.

Last night at Middletown High School, when the going got tough, the Sachems got tougher.

RHAM eked out a 25-23 Game 1 victory and pulled away late for a 25-19 decision in Game 2. And with one more game needed to close things out, Jonathan Law was doing anything it could to extend things.

The Sachems trailed by four points, 20-16, evened things up at 20-all and were knotted up at 22-22 with the Lawmen having the momentum as they forced a side-out.

Quickly, that momentum went up in smoke.

First, senior libero Mallory Grosso found a way to get the ball off the floor on the ensuing serve that led to a passing error on the other side of the net to give RHAM a 23-22 lead.

Then, senior Kelsey Welling drilled a kill that deflected off an opposing player, setting up match point.

And it was Welling (13 kills, 4 blocks) that sent top-seeded RHAM (24-0) into its third consecutive Class M final with a block in the middle on Caitlin Stapleton that finished off a 25-22 Game 3 victory to complete a 3-game sweep of No. 4 Jonathan Law (21-3).

“We knew that if it went to the fourth game it would get really tough,” Grosso said. “When we were down by four points during the time-out in the huddle, we just said to ourselves that we just have to give everything we got.

“The hardest part of the tournament is the semifinal game. When Kelsey closed it out it was just such a relief knowing that we’ll be playing on Saturday.”

The Sachems, ranked No. 2 in the state, won their 53rd consecutive match, the longest active streak in the state, and will go for the 3-peat when they face No. 11 seed Joel Barlow in Saturday afternoon’s 1 p.m. title match at Berlin High School. The Falcons advanced Wednesday with a 16-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-13 semifinal victory over No. 2 Sacred Heart Academy.

Finding the resiliency to get the ball off the floor and running down balls to keep points alive have been two of the trademarks defining RHAM’s run of dominance over the course of the 53-match winning streak.

Match point was no different as it was senior Chelsea Fenton who kept the point alive with a 1-handed dig. Moments later, Welling was in the right spot to time her leap perfectly and send a kill back to the floor to wrap things up.
“We have seven seniors that work hard, never give up and never give in,” RHAM coach Tim Guernsey said. “They chase down a lot of balls and are just relentless. They play every single ball until it hits the floor, believe in each other, have great camaraderie and play a great game of volleyball.”

RHAM opened up a 22-15 lead in Game 1 and led 23-18 when its first serving error of the night gave the ball to Law senior Casey Dulin.

Dulin (11 digs, 9 kills, 5 aces) won two of the next three points on aces and even a time-out by RHAM could not squash the momentum as Meaghan Abbott put away a ball set by Jackie Kochiss (24 assists) that made it a 23-23 deadlock.

The Sachems, like all champions do, found a way to right the ship.

It was one of their unheralded seniors - Alie Carlson - who would right things with her third kill of Game 1 to give RHAM game point at 24-23.

Fenton finished Game 1 off as her serve was initially dug up by Jonathan Law and then dropped in the middle off four players in a lapse of communication as RHAM took a 1-0 lead.

RHAM led 16-15 midway through Game 2 and had a 19-16 lead when a critical momentum swing occurred.

Dulin thought she had won the point with a kill from the front line that somehow RHAM senior Tessa Smolinski (8 kills, 10 digs) dug off the floor, leading to a successful kill from Welling (6 kills). The Sachems followed with two quick points to build a 22-16 advantage.

Smolinski teamed up with Ellie Linden (25 assists) on another RHAM trademark - a soft dink over the front row of defenders that landed in the middle of the floor - for a 25-19 Game 2 win and 2-0 lead.

Looking up at a 4-point, 20-16 deficit in Game 3, it was the experience of going through those same situations during practice that paid dividends for RHAM.

We come back in practice all the time,” Grosso said. “Coach will set the scoreboard with us down 24-20 and we have to find ways to get it back to even.”

Grosso had two of her five aces in a 3-game serving run after RHAM forced a side-out out of its time-out which got things back to even at 20-20.

And down the stretch in those critical moments, it was both the resiliency and championship experience that proved instrumental in another workmanlike winning effort that has catapulted RHAM within one more victory of another championship memory.

“For the whole match tonight we were a little tight,” Guernsey said. “I don’t know if we played our best ball in any game, but maybe in stretches. We have good enough players to put the ball away when we need to.

“I’m happy for this group. They worked hard to get back to this moment.”