CUMBERLAND — Judging by Gorham’s celebration after the third set, or the way the Greely players dropped their heads, you wouldn’t know their volleyball match wasn’t over.
Or that Greely led two sets to one.
The emotions arose because Greely lost a set for the first time this year. But the Rangers recovered quickly end eliminated Gorham in the Class A quarterfinals with a 25-16, 25-17, 21-25, 25-9 victory Saturday.
The top-seeded Rangers (15-0) advanced to the semifinals Wednesday against No. 4 Falmouth (13-3). No. 9 Gorham is done at 10-6.
Greely beat Falmouth during the season 3-0 – but then the Rangers beat everyone 3-0 this year until Saturday. It’s a dominance Greely embraced. When the Rangers won the first two sets, a sweep seemed inevitable.
Except Gorham wasn’t folding. The first two games were hard-fought. Diana Kolb and Kristen Curley were powerful outside hitters for Gorham and, combined with Caralin Mills and Katherine O’Donnell, were effective blockers to the Rangers’ power game.
“Gorham is a very good team and we knew that coming in,” Molly Chapin of Greely said. “Very big blocks. We had to work on hitting around them.
“They picked up a lot of balls. They were very scrappy.”
Gorham was losing but Coach Nicole Rizzo was applauding.
“I’m so happy with our level of play,” she said. “We were able to get passes and set our offense.”
Still, Greely outplayed the Rams in those first games, with setter Morgan Selby finding her powerful hitters in Chapin, Kayley Cimino and Sara Agren.
“We want to hit the ball. We want to attack, attack, attack all the time,” Greely Coach Kelvin Hasch said. “That’s what we’re about. (But) we got away from that a little bit.”
In the third game the Rams jumped ahead 12-8 and Greely called a timeout. Gorham made it 17-10 with Maiya Carlson serving four straight points, and Greely called another timeout.
Greely rallied but the Rams held on, with setter Isabelle Kolb pacing the flow for a 25-21 win. The Rams were whooping and hugging.
“It literally meant the world to our team, and meant the world to me,” said Diana Kolb, “to finish our season by taking a set off of Greely.”
Hasch approached his upset players.
“I told them, ‘Hey, that meant nothing to me. They hadn’t won a thing. Let’s go out and spank them,’ ” Hasch said. “I think the score reflects that.”
With Agren serving 10 straight points on aces, winners and Gorham errors, the Rangers took a 14-1 lead.
“I think we got too excited and lost our focus a little bit,” Diana Kolb said.
When Gorham got back to its passing and setting up hits, Greely was there to block.
The Rangers finished off Gorham and were soon celebrating.
“It was hard to lose a set after such a great season, but they earned it. Good for them,” Chapin said. “Something we can work on and learn from this.
“It was an intense game all the way around. It’s fun to play in those. It’s what we needed.”
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