PLYMOUTH – The Winnisquam volleyball team didn’t set high expectations for itself at the beginning of the season.
The Bears graduated a strong group seniors that helped them reach the Division III finals last year before losing to Sunapee. This year – with just two seniors, two juniors and a collection of underclassmen – Mike Livernois was only hoping his team could at least get a taste of the playoffs and come back with a more experienced group next season.
Instead of just a taste, the second-ranked Bears took off with a 15-1 regular season record and almost hogged half of the bracket but fell to third-ranked Farmington in the semifinals, 3-2, at Plymouth State Univeristy on Wednesday.
“We’re all upset, but we got a lot farther than we ever thought we would and I think a lot of us are looking forward to next year,” said sophomore Shannon Goodwin. “We thought we were going to be 10-6, but ended up being 15-1. So I think we exceeded any expectation anyone would have had for us.”
Winnisquam (16-2) dominated Farmington in the fourth set, 25-9, and beating the Tigers to 14 points in the fifth set seemed feasible. But the Tigers quietly went on a 6-1 run at the end of the set and carried some of that momentum into the fifth where they sealed the match in a 14-12 win.
“Farmington is a good team and they outhit us in the end,” Livernois said. “We weren’t offensive enough in that game, and you could really see the experience of their hitters versus ours.”
Winnisquam led early in the set, but Farmington didn’t let the Bears get more than two points ahead. The Tigers tied the score twice and went on a 4-0 run to establish an 8-6 lead. Livernois called timeout, but Farmington came back out with a 3-0 run to go ahead 11-6 and Livernois called for time again.
This time, the Bears came out cut the deficit to 12-11. Farmington coach Jenn Kuehl called timeout and Tigers went beat Winnisquam to 14 with a 2-1 run.
“You can’t be successful up here if you don’t communicate and play as a team,” Livernois said. “It’s so loud, there’s so much energy that if you don’t you fall apart pretty quickly. So you have to rely on each other and work as a unit.”
The Bears played a tight game for most of the night, particularly in a nearly mistake-free fourth set, but a missed hit and a missed serve in the fifth proved to be costly and put Winnisquam outside the 2-point margin needed to win the set.
“It’s not that (those) mistakes were any more important than the ones we made in the beginning,” Livernois said. “But they just take the wind out of your sails because you know you’re that close, and it’s game five and there’s no way to recover.”
Farmington (16-3) put Winnisquam on its heels with a 25-22 win in the opening set. The Bears came back and took the second set 25-19. Farmington will face No. 5 Moultonborough – which dispatched No. 9 Campbell, 3-0 – in the finals on Friday at 7 p.m. in Plymouth.
Goodwin led the team with 31 digs, Talia DeBlasie had 23 and Aubrey St. Onge had 20. DeBlasie recorded 31 assists and will head into her junior year with 951 career assists. Goodwin set a single-season school record with 288 kills.
All but seniors Kerry Boyle and Nicole Matcheski will return next season.
“We’ve got a lot to look forward to,” Livernois said. “They’ve experienced Plymouth State. They’ll know what to do next time and I think they’ll be ready to come up and do it.”
(Nick Stoico can be reached at 369-3339, nstoico@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @NickStoico.)