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Plainfield
Unlike high school football teams in Connecticut which must have a bye week, soccer teams don’t get that benefit.
Unless one happens to be a part of the schedule.
The Woodstock Academy girls’ soccer team hadn’t played since the Friday before when they met Plainfield.
“It was a good break, but in terms of spreading the schedule out, it probably wasn’t necessary to have the whole week off. We have times ahead where we will have three games in four days so that will be the opposite,” said coach Dennis Snelling.
For example, the Centaurs do have three games scheduled for this week against Bacon Academy (Monday), Granby (Wednesday) and Waterford (Saturday).
But the rest did have its positives. Two injured players came back Saturday.
The Centaurs also picked up their third win of the season with a 1-0 win over the Panthers.
They had to wait a while.
Woodstock had plenty of chances, at least 30, according to Snelling.
“A lot of the shots were close in and they just wouldn’t go in. We hit the post three times. They played a little defensively but we’ve seen worse. I think Plainfield played well,” Snelling said.
The game-winner would not come until just three minutes, 4 seconds were left in regulation.
Junior Juliet Allard scored her team-leading third goal of the season when she took a pass from senior Kendall McCormack just inside midfield.
“I think Juliet ran as fast as a human can run with the ball, went around the defenders and went straight at the goalie and smashed it through from six yards out,” Snelling said.
It was just the second goal in the last four games for the Centaurs.
“I felt like (Saturday), even though we didn’t score a lot, we got more chances than we’ve had. It’s just that a lot of teams are very defensive and just want to counterattack and that means the games kind of end up in a stalemate,” Snelling said.
While he is happy with the 3-1-2 September start for the Centaurs, there are plenty of tests remaining in the final 10 matches in October.
“The heart of the schedule is coming up now with bigger teams like Bacon Academy to come,” Snelling said.
Volleyball
It was only the first go around but the volleyball team has a leg upon its ECC Div. I opponents.
The Centaurs completed the sweep of East Lyme, Fitch and Norwich Free Academy with a 3-0 victory over NFA.
Woodstock then made it five wins in a row when it shutout Bacon Academy Friday, 3-0.
The Centaurs are now 6-3 overall.
“We’re feeling pretty good,” said coach Adam Bottone. “Going into East Lyme game, I knew it would be a good matchup and wasn’t sure how it would play out. I was really happy with that result. We played Fitch (on Sept. 25) and it wasn’t our best game so we had to work through that. This (against NFA) was a little better than that. I feel like we’re building on the things that we’re working on in practice. I know when we go to play East Lyme at their place, we had better be ready to play-same as when we go to NFA.”
But there was time for celebration following the win over NFA.
“That’s really good and brings a lot of confidence to the team,” junior outside hitter Liliana Bottone said of the sweep of their Div. I opponents. “Hopefully, we can build and work on that.”
The hitting was key for the Centaurs against the Wildcats.
Liliana Bottone was especially effective from the outside where she made 20 kills. Sophomore Kaylee Bundy had seven kills, Mia Sorrentino added four and both Reegan Reynolds and Sophie Gronski contributed three.
“Our hitting (against NFA) was better than it has been in a while so that’s really good. We had 14 service errors impacted us and our passing. We didn’t pass consistently enough to get good sets and keep us consistent. When we were in system, we dominated,” Adam Bottone said.
The Centaurs won the first set, 25-19, and followed that up with 25-20 and 25-16 wins over the pesky Wildcats.
“We were hitting the ball well and that’s huge,” Liliana Bottone said. “Before, I was having a lot of off days and that was putting me in a bad mental space but I was able to get out of that and I was very confident in myself (against NFA).”
Sophie Gronski finished with 27 assists while Cassidy Ladd added five assists to go with her 11 digs while Bundy contributed 12.
One thing the Centaurs were scratching their heads about a bit was the NFA serves which took them out of system a bit as well.
“I understand that receiving float serves is a pretty difficult thing to do. We just have to adjust a little better and we will be in a good place,” Adam Bottone said.
The Centaurs finished up the three-match week with the win over Bacon Academy.
The hitting continued to shine as Liliana Bottone had 14 kills from the outside and Vivian Bibeau had eight kills from her opposite hitter position.
Gronski contributed to both of their successes with 27 assists. Emma Kerr was the defensive leader with 10 digs.
Woodstock was coming off a 3-0 win over Fitch earlier in the week. The Centaurs swept past the Falcons 25-14, 25-17 and 25-20.
But, unlike the match with NFA, Adam Bottone was not overly happy with that effort.
“We won, so I’m not complaining. The service errors were much better because we had only eight. That’s something to be happy about but the energy in that game was low, we didn’t pass great and had a lot of hitting errors,” he said.
Ladd had 14 digs and continued her fine play from behind the service line with five aces. Liliana Bottone paced Woodstock Academy with eight kills while Sorrentino added seven.
Field Hockey
It is a 60-minute game but, sometimes, one short moment can decide a contest.
That was the case on Tuesday as an attack by Woodstock produced a counter and a goal by Killingly and that was all it took as the visitors posted a 1-0 victory.
The Centaurs (2-5, 1-4 ECC) finished up the week on the road at East Lyme, played very well defensively, and came up just short, 3-1, to the Vikings.
Woodstock looked like it was going to take the lead in the match at home with Killingly.
Centaur attacker Georgia Lukachie broke away from most of the Killingly defense and was able to take on Killingly keeper Jillian Beach.
“Georgia’s hit was a reverse and it went right back into (Beach’s) pads. We have to work on getting it around, possibly to the opposite post, and then in for the shot,” said coach Sam Mowry.
The goalie wasn’t a lone as defender Ella Dunn was able to recover and contributed to Lukachie’s quick shot.
The Killingly defender’s clear sailed through midfield and one quick pass later was on the stick of Killingly’s Joselinn Sanchez.
The sophomore went low, sweeping a shot with her stick to the left corner of the net, just out of the reach of an attempted kick save by keeper Elizabeth Roberts. It gave Killingly the lead with 3 minutes, 19 seconds left in the first half.
The only other strong chance for either team came in the final minute when the Centaurs (2-4, 1-3 ECC) had a flurry in front of the net which resulted in a couple of shots but nothing found the back of the cage.
It was the second 1-0 decision in three games for the Centaurs.
They downed East Catholic by that score in overtime the week before.
“It hurts a little,” said Mowry of the difficulty to score. “It would be nice to put up points. We’re just working to build some offensive pressure.”
The Centaurs did have some of that in the first quarter when they did send three shots at the Killingly cage.
But fatigue was a factor. “That was a really solid quarter but we have a lot of illness and injuries and just finding subs is pretty tough,” Mowry said. “We have four people on the field all the time. We don’t have subs for them.”
The defense shined. Abby Converse, Corinne LaMontagne and Grace Pokorny all made seven defensive saves in the match and keeper Madison LaVallee finished with five saves.
The goals, however, were hard to come by.
The only tally for Woodstock came in the second half when Sophie Petrella tallied for a first time this season off an assist from Clara Dowdle.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
Junior outside hitter Kaylee Bundy elevates to send a ball back against Norwich Free Academy.
Sophie Gronski (3) and Mia Sorrentino (7) look to the Woodstock Academy bench for some direction in the Centaurs win over Norwich Free Academy.
Vivian Bibeau, left, and Cassidy Ladd await a service from NFA.
Junior Libero gets down for a dig in a win over NFA. Photos by Marc Allard.
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