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Honor
Seniors Aurissa Boardman, Annarose Avery and Lizzy Lovrien celebrated Senior Night Oct. 29. Photo by Trent Peters.
The fall athletic season has just about wrapped up. With the exception of football, the regular season came to a close last week for Woodstock Academy fall sports teams including soccer, field hockey and volleyball.
For the seniors involved in those sports, it meant the final time to play in front of the home fans. That was true for three Woodstock volleyball players.
Aurissa Boardman, Lizzy Lovrien and Annarose Avery all took to the court for a final time and put on quite the show in a hard-fought, 3-2, loss to Griswold Oct. 29.
Lovrien had a tough senior season. She missed about a month due to COVID-19 and just recently returned to the lineup. “I definitely had an up-and-down road up to now. Over the four years, I have become a lot more confident. I’m more open about my emotions on the team and have been able to talk to more of the people on the team and get to know them. I used to be so quiet, so shy, timid, and scared to do anything because I was afraid to disappoint them. Now, I’m doing it for fun and it has helped my play a lot,” Lovrien said.
Coach Adam Bottone said: “This group of seniors was more impacted by COVID than the group of seniors last year. They did have a postseason to play for, though, and fought hard. They lost a year last year playing against good competition so it has been nice to see them pl." The Centaurs battled hard in their final match of the season on their home floor, including coming back from a 10-5 deficit in the fifth set, but the Wolverines (12-7) held on for a 17-15 victory in the decisive set.
It was a see-saw battle all night with Woodstock (5-15) winning the first set, 25-15. Griswold answered with a 25-16 win in the second set; the Centaurs took the third 25-21 and the Wolverines the fourth, 25-23, to set up the decisive fifth.
Boardman had 24 kills, five aces and 12 digs for Woodstock while Avery added 20 assists and Ellie Nunes had 27 digs.
The night before Woodstock beat Killingly, 3-0. Nunes recorded eight aces and 17 consecutive service points in the first set won by Woodstock, 25-4.
Killingly did rally a bit in the second before falling, But Avery put the finishing touches on the win for the Centaurs, recording eight aces in the final 10 points in a 25-14 third set victory. Freshman Liliana Bottone had nine kills while Boardman had six.
The five-win season and the shuffling of lineups has allowed Adam Bottone to work with his younger players who will be key factors come next season. The Centaurs did not qualify for the Class L state tournament.
Football
It looked like it was going to be another fantastic finish for the Woodstock football team, but they lost a heartbreaker on the road at E. Lyme, 21-15, Oct. 29.
Woodstock (5-2) got a chance to tie the game in the fourth quarter when senior Tyler Green recovered an E. Lyme fumble at the Centaurs 27. Woodstock was soon knocking on the door.
Quarterback Ethan Davis ran for 16 yards and then completed a pair of passes to receiver Jackson Goetz (5 catches, 49 yards) for 31 more to take Woodstock Academy to the Viking 26-yard line.
The Centaurs had a scary moment when the E. Lyme defense put them in a fourth down-and-3 situation but Davis was up to the task as he tossed a ball high to a leaping Carter Saracina for a first down as the Vikings 6.
Davis gobbled up most of those with a 5-yard carry to the 1-yard line. But on the next play, Davis was sacked back at the 5.
He worked his way back to the 2 with a 3-yard run but the thought of a tie ended on an incomplete pass. The Vikings (2-5) took over with just over a minute remaining in regulation and ran the clock out.
Woodstock scored early when a punt on E. Lyme’s first possession went only 14 yards and the Centaurs got the ball on the Vikings 38-yard line. Saracina ran for 16 yards and Davis (16 carries, 112 yards) finished off the rest, going in from 2 yards out for the 7-0 Woodstock lead.
E. Lyme tied the game with 2 minutes, 42 seconds left in the half when Rowan Mundell scored from 2 yards out. The Centaurs went ahead again in the second quarter when Davis (13-for-21 passing, 147 yards) completed an eight-play, 75-yard drive with a 15-yard touchdown toss to Saracina (6 catches, 89 yards)
But E. Lyme cut it to two at the half when quarterback Will Anglin picked his way through the Centaurs defense for a 25-yard score with 22 seconds left in the half.
The Vikings got the only touchdown of the second half on an Anglin (8-for-17 passing, 98 yards) to Jonathan Harms touchdown pass late in the third quarter.
Field Hockey
The Woodstock field hockey team finished up its season with a 6-0 loss to Fitch in Groton Oct. 30.
“It seems like we blinked and the season was over,” said coach Lauren Gagnon. “We’ve grown a lot even just looking at the second time we played NFA and we held our own after NFA came back to tie the game. We didn’t fold. We had freshmen scoring after that. We had the wherewithal to keep it all together.”
But it was a rebuilding season for a team that lost 12 players to graduation from last year.
The loss meant Woodstock finished with a 3-11-2 overall record and a 3-7-2 mark in the ECC. As a result, the Centaurs did not qualify for either the ECC or state tournament.
The big focus for next year will have to be the offense. With the loss to Fitch, the Centaurs were shutout 10 times this season.
Woodstock keeper Ava Basak made 11 saves. Earlier in the week, the Centaurs fell to Killingly, 1-0.
Basak made four saves in goal for the Centaurs who had three shots in the first half but failed to get one in the second. The Centaurs appeared to have tied the game with 5:24 left in the third quarter but the goal was disallowed.
Freshman Abby Converse also had a good opportunity in the first quarter but her shot bounced harmlessly off the post.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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