Trojans rally, cool Dragons, sweep to title

BAR HARBOR – The only team not to be swept by top-seeded Mount Desert Island this season found out how all of MDI’s other foes felt in Wednesday night’s Eastern Maine volleyball championship match at Parady Gymnasium.

The Trojans survived a sluggish start and somehow won an opening game dominated by No. 2 Woodland in all areas but the final score en route to a 25-22, 25-16, 25-22 victory and their fourth straight regional title.

The 17-0 Trojans will take on four-time defending state champ Greely of Cumberland Center in a 1 p.m. state championship match at Cony High School in Augusta Saturday.

Despite the impressive win, MDI coach Todd Brophy wasn’t breaking out the party hats and noisemakers just yet.

“It doesn’t mean much if we come in second again,” Brophy said. “I think it’s time we stand on top of the mountain for a year or two and I think this year we have a team to do it.”

Woodland head coach Rich Nutter thought he had the team to do it Wednesday, especially after his Dragons took an 18-12 lead in the first game and appeared to have complete control of early momentum.

“Yeah, they stole that first game from us. We were in control right up until that last part of it, but we let it slip away,” Nutter said. “I think that was the difference in the match, really, because it set the tone. I’d like to play that one over.”

Junior Whitney Walls came in for MDI at 18-13 and reeled off three straight service points, but Woodland answered with two straight. Later, another three-point MDI run made it 22-22 before MDI’s Carissa Tinker served out the match with three straight service points – the last of which came on an ace.

“I don’t think it did that much to us, but I think it gave them much more confidence,” Nutter said. “I think it would have been a different second game had they lost that first one because I could tell even then they were thinking thoughts that didn’t normally go through their heads.”

The only thing going through MDI players’ heads after that was “win.”

“It took awhile to get the momentum going in our direction, but we didn’t freak out when things weren’t going well early,” said MDI junior hitter Mariah Grover. “We have enough confidence in ourselves that we know once we get into our own game, we’re good enough to beat anyone.”

The 6-foot-3 Grover helped lead the Trojans with 12 kills, two aces off 8-for-8 serving, and two assists.

Despite being nine inches shorter than Grover, MDI senior hitter-defensive specialist Charlotte Royce stood tall for MDI. She had four kills, four digs and several assists.

“I was lucky. The sets were amazing today,” Royce said modestly. “They were trying to cover all of us, but we have some really talented girls who can move around it and our setters lead us really well.”

Junior hitter-specialist Hannah Adelmann was 12-for-12 serving with two aces, nine digs, four kills and two assists for the Trojans. Tinker, a senior hitter-specialist, was 11-for-11 with four aces, seven digs, three assists and two kills.

The 14-3 Dragons, who lost both previous matches with MDI in four games, were led by senior hitters Courtney Cochran and Mikayla Sabattis. Cochran was 11-for-11 on serving and had seven kills, four digs and two blocks. Sabattis was 14-for-14 with three aces, six digs, three kills and two blocks. Woodland was also paced by sophomore hitter Ariel Knights (13-for-13, one ace, four digs and two kills), senior hitter Cali Anthony (8-for-8, five assists, three digs), and sophomore hitter Shelby Basset (8-for-10, three aces, three digs).

With both teams getting solid production overall from their big guns, a key factor was substitute servers, where MDI got big production from the likes of junior serve specialist Alyson Yau (15-for-19, five aces).

The Dragons’ substitute/designated servers were a combined 2-for-6 on service.