Glastonbury’s volleyball team came into Friday night’s match at Bristol Eastern with three losses, but sometimes records can be deceiving. They had lost to some of the best volleyball teams in the state, including a future Eastern opponent, Southington. From the very beginning, it was obvious they would be a very difficult opponent for the Lancers, and ultimately Glastonbury was able to hand Eastern their second defeat of the season, three sets to two.
Glastonbury came out firing on all cylinders, capturing the first two sets by scores of 25-21 and 25-17. The Guardians were controlling the net with multiple blocks and altering Eastern’s attempted kill shots with their agile blockers. As a result, the Lancers made several uncharacteristic errors in the two sets, sending many shots either long or into the net.
In the third set, however, the Lancers came alive, with the strategy of feeding Hannah Webber almost every possession. Webber responded with some booming kills, and Eastern took the third easily by a score of 25-15.
The fourth set looked like Glastonbury would close out the match, as they jumped out early and held the lead well into the set. Again, the Lancers displayed their competitive mettle, and they rallied to tie the set at 25. The lead see-sawed back and forth until Webber put away a kill from a perfect pass by Abby Jones and Eastern sent the match to a fifth set with a 28-26 victory.
The drama continued throughout the final set, as both squads took turns with the lead. Ultimately, the Guardians were able to prevail on a couple of big kills from Evelyn Brenton; final score 19-17.
Eastern was led by Webber with 35 kills, 3 aces and 11 digs, Jones with an incredible 57 assists and 14 digs, and Alex Shorette with 3 aces, 6 kills, and 15 digs.
Brenton led Glastonbury with 13 kills, 5 aces, and 5 blocks. Amanda Leclair pitched in with 4 kills and 5 blocks for the Guardians.