Fall sports

Greenwich High girls volleyball team raises record to 14-0 win win vs. Ridgefield

Photo by David Fierro: Greenwich swept Ridgefield, 3-0, in an FCIAC match held on Oct. 15, 2021 in Greenwich.

The streak is 14 and counting.

That’s how many matches the undefeated Greenwich High School girls volleyball team has won so far this season.

The soaring Cardinals completed another successful week Friday with a 3-0 win against visiting Ridgefield. After defeating New Canaan on Monday, Darien Wednesday and Ridgefield Friday, Greenwich’s record is a perfect 14-0.

Greenwich, which defeated Ridgefield by game scores of 25-20, 25-22, 25-15, is one of only two undefeated teams in Class LL – Cheshire (15-0) being the other team.

“It feels really good to be this far in the season, we weren’t expecting to be 14-0, especially after losing so many seniors,” Greenwich senior tri-captain Liana Sarkissian said. “We’re happy and excited and we want to see how far we could get with this team.”

Senior tri-captain Adele Sotgiu registered 12 kills and four aces, while Sarkissian tallied 10 kills, 12 digs and five blocks for the Cardinals. Katherine Ford posted seven kills and 13 digs and Lucia Spanjol notched 34 assists and four digs to also highlight the winning effort.

Greenwich’s volleyball team is riding a 14-game winning streak in its 2021 season.

After winning the first two sets against Ridgefield, Greenwich held a 10-8 lead on Ridgefield in the third set, then increased it to 14-8 on strong serving by Sotgiu. Later in the set, a kill by Sarkissian put the Cards ahead, 20-11. Another Sarkissian kill made it 24-12.

“I think Ridgefield had really good defense, they were really scrappy,” Sotgiu said. “We had a little bit of trouble putting the ball down. But once we got into a rhythm and our defense was good, we were picking up a lot. We were waiting for them to make mistakes and we were keeping the ball in play.”

Said Greenwich coach Steve Lapham: “We knew they (Ridgefield) were going to be good. We jumped out to leads and then we stalled. But it’s a good win. It was a big win against Darien and so was today. Our passing was really good, Adele was great. I thought we did a good job of passing their serve.”

Greenwich, which is 26-0 dating back to the 2020 season, entered Friday’s match against Ridgefield with a lot of energy after defeating rival Darien, 3-1, in Wednesday’s road matchup.

“That definitely brought our energy up, that was our most competitive game so far,” Sotgiu said of the squad’s competition against Darien. “We were really hyped for it. Going to four sets, instead of five, we were really excited and happy about that.”

Adele Sotgiu, Kassidy Bonney and Sophie Jones get ready for Ridgefield to serve during a match at Greenwich High.

The Cards, who host Bridgeport Central on Monday and Danbury on Wednesday, have indeed, risen to the occasion against their rival opponents.

“We thrive on playing the hard teams and strong teams,” GHS senior tri-captain Sophie Jones said. “When we get to play high-level volleyball that’s what we enjoy most. When it’s high-level games, high speed games, that’s when we play our best and are having the most fun. Coming into the season, we had a brand new team and we wanted to show our best and unite as one team.”

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