James Farley

WA works together to return a Groton-Dunstable serve.

In their first game of the 2023 season, WA Girls’ Volleyball suffered a 3-1 loss to Groton-Dunstable in an intense 4-set game at home on Tuesday, Sep. 5.

The Ghosts came out strong in their first set of the season, taking an early 9-5 lead thanks to strong serves from senior captain Jenny Alexander. Groton-Dunstable fought back and tied the set up at 9-9, but WA regained their lead when sophomore Kaitlyn Pepin rattled off several powerful serves in a row to make it 14-9 in favor of WA.

Groton-Dunstable continued the early theme of clawing back into the match by scoring three straight points to bring WA’s lead down to 14-12, resulting in head coach Brandon Eang calling a timeout to stop the Crusaders’ momentum.

The timeout proved to be beneficial for WA, as they proceeded to take an 18-12 lead that they held on for the remainder of the first set. A nice dig from senior Keilana daRosa and a spike from Alexander capped off the first set for the Ghosts, as they won it 25-20 and took a 1-0 set lead.

The second set was nothing like the first for WA, as they struggled to build on their good start. Groton-Dunstable began the set with consistent communication that was not present in the opening set, helping them take a quick 7-3 lead. Pepin responded with two consecutive spikes to make it 7-5, but Groton-Dunstable did not allow the Ghosts to get in a groove, as they went up 11-6, forcing WA to call a timeout. 

Groton-Dunstable continued dominating in the second set, and WA called timeout to try and stop the bleeding down 19-9, but these timeouts failed to help the Ghosts bounce back, as they lost the second set 25-12.

The third set was much more competitive than the second frame, as the two teams traded points early on. Spikes by junior Sophie Krauss helped to rejuvenate WA, and they took a 6-4 lead.

Groton-Dunstable went on a run of their own to go up 15-10, but a flurry of great serves by senior captain Jocelyn Vogel helped the Ghosts go on a huge run to take a 17-15 lead as Groton-Dunstable called a timeout.

However, Groton-Dunstable responded to WA’s run by going on a run of their own, as they scored six straight points to take a commanding 21-17 lead. The Crusaders continued their momentum from there, and won the third set 25-19, taking a 2-1 set lead.

Similar to the third set, WA and Groton-Dunstable fought hard as they went back and forth trading points during the fourth set. WA took an early 11-6 with the help from several good serves from Vogel, but was forced to call a timeout when Groton-Dunstable clawed back in to make it 12-10 with WA in the lead.

The DCL competitors continued battling, as clear communication and intense focus brought the fourth set to a 17-17 tie. Groton-Dunstable proceeded to break the back-and-forth trend by going on a big 4-0 run to go up 21-17, leading to Eang calling a timeout. 

Groton-Dunstable continued their run by going up 23-17, and WA seemed to be completely out of it. However, the Ghosts, led by Pepin, Krauss, and Alexander, fought all the way back to tie it up 24-24, forcing Groton-Dunstable to call a timeout amidst an electrified WA home crowd.

The two teams went on to trade every other point all the way up until it was 29-29, but Groton-Dunstable was eventually the one to emerge victorious, as they pulled away to win the fourth set 31-29, and therefore winning the game 3-1.

Despite beginning the season 0-1, Pepin sees a silver lining in the team’s opening-day performance.

“The whole team was disappointed that we fell short to Groton-Dunstable,” Pepin said. “However, we could all agree on the fact that when the score was close we were fighting back and that we brought energy and focus into the play.”

Additionally, Eang recognizes that WA can improve in some facets of the game to help them become a more complete team and improve after their opening loss.

“We need to improve in the serve receive, reading offense, and getting in the right positions in our perimeter defense,” Eang said. “Our goal is to improve in those areas and make it into the MIAA Tournament.”