FALMOUTH — Cape Elizabeth went into Thursday’s volleyball match against Falmouth having won 27 straight matches, with 10 wins this season all by 3-0 scores.
Falmouth halted one streak by taking the first set, and two hours later, the winning streak ended as Falmouth prevailed 25-21, 22-25, 27-25, 25-20 in a battle between the top-ranked teams in Class A and Class B.
Behind a raucous home crowd, unrelenting offense and a swarming defense, the Yachtsmen put their stamp as the top team in Class A with a 9-1 record as they avenged their only loss, at Cape Elizabeth on Sept. 18.
Falmouth also lost to Cape in last year’s Class B championship match before moving up to Class A this season.
Falmouth Coach Larry Nichols said the win could be a much bigger statement then merely avenging a loss.
“We’re coming to that part of the season where the dust is starting to settle a bit … and when something like this happens, it is fuel for the rest of the matches coming up,” said Nichols, in his first year at Falmouth after four years at Deering.
“As the Cape coach will tell you, we all have things to work on, so we have to focus. This isn’t the season, this is a match, but it was huge in many areas.”
The third set was pivotal for the Yachtsmen, after Cape Elizabeth won a close second set to even the match at 1-1.
Cape appeared on its way to taking a 2-1 lead as it built a 21-15 advantage in the third set. But Falmouth reeled off eight of the next nine points. Sophomore Annika Hester (31 kills) got a sideout with a kill, then scored the next point with a dink over two would-be blockers. She added three more kills in the run.
Back-to-back hits out of bounds by Cape preceded a block by Katie Phillips (nine kills, 13 assists and three blocks) to end the set.
“We just knew that we had to keep going,” said Hester, describing the team’s mindset when trailing in the third set. “Sometimes we get behind, but we know if we focus and work on rule 1 – getting the ball over the net – then we can catch up.”
Cape Coach Sarah Boeckel described Falmouth as playing “a flawless match,” while her team had an atypical performance.
“They’re a really good team and it is hard to beat a team a fifth time in a row – going back to last year,” she said. “They’re a quality, quality program.
“I think too many of us were a little off today.”
The Yachtsmen left no doubt in the fourth set. After trailing 1-0, they went on a 6-0 run – as Hester kills with assists from Summer Spiegel (34 assists) and Phillips got things going – and led the rest of the way.
The advantage ballooned to 17-10 before Cape came back to trail by four points, 23-19, on a kill by Megan Connolly (seven kills) off an assist by Corina Page (18 assists). But a hit into the net ended the match.
“We didn’t want to go five (sets) with a team like that. The fact that they haven’t lost is not by accident,” Nichols said. “We saw it in some of those rallies. We thought we had it and we’re still playing the point.”
One noticeable difference between this match and many others could be seen in the inordinate amount of times there was a break in the action to wipe sweat off the court.
“We were really working hard,” Hester said about her team’s all-out effort. “That’s what you need to do to beat a team like Cape.”
Rose Riversmith added five kills and six blocks for Falmouth.
Cape got contributions from Jaya McClure (six kills) and Brooke Harvey (six kills). Libero Tess Dolan was all over the court with numerous saves and digs.
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