Back and forth the momentum swung during a rivalry volleyball match between Greenwich Academy and Sacred Heart Greenwich, a competition that both teams had marked on their calendars all season.

Both teams had their moments in this tight, competitive FAA varsity volleyball matchup, but Greenwich Academy especially excelled during the latter portions of most of the sets, enabling it to earn a hard-fought road victory.

Winning key points after overcoming several deficits along the way, Greenwich Academy was victorious against longtime FAA neighborhood rival Sacred Heart Greenwich, 3-1. With the win, the Gators improved their FAA record to 3-2. The Gators won this rivalry match by set scores of 25-23, 26-24, 16-25, 25-22.

“This was a really, really tough match, it’s always one of our hardest matches of the season,” said Gioia Brown, who helps anchor’s GA’s play in the middle. “It’s also the most fun. I think it was hard, but I think we did a really good job.”

The Gators’ other FAA victories have come against St. Luke’s School and Rye Country Day School, as they improve their positioning for next month’s always anticipated FAA Volleyball Tournament. GA fell behind in the first game, but staged a spirited rally to win it, 25-23. In the second set, strong serving from junior setter Julianna Luzzi helped Sacred Heart start strong. Luzzi’s ace made it 3-0 in favor of SHG, which proceeded to take a 7-3 advantage on an ace from senior outside hitter Ana Pizzimbono.

A kill by Tigers senior outside hitter Arabella Pike made it 16-14 in favor of SHG later in the opening set. GA rallied to take a 21-20 edge after Tinsley Tarifi posted a kill, then the Tigers tied it at 22-22 with a Luzzi ace. The score was then tied 24-24 and Greenwich Academy went ahead for good behind a Brown kill.

“Volleyball is a mental game and we kept our energy up even when it was hard and we bounced back,” Brown noted.

Several kills by Luzzi, Pizzimbono and Pike kept the Tigers in front in the third set, which they won, 25-16. Luzzi led Sacred Heart’s offense with 13 kills, eight aces and 13 assists. Defensively, Luzzi had 13 digs and one block.

“I think at the end, we definitely got into our head a little bit and got nervous about those last few points. It happens, it’s a big game,” Luzzi said. “That’s something that we can work on in practice, just talking through those kind of moments and just settling ourselves and trusting the person next to us.”

GA pulled out another close, back-and-forth fourth set to win the match, 3-1. Caroline Brower and Brooklyn Schack each registered timely kills, while Sieg displayed strong serving for the Gators, who were victorious against the Tigers during the 2025 regular season as well.

“We knew that Sacred Heart was going to be a really good team to play, we’ve been looking forward to this game all season and we’ve been working really hard in all of our practices, focusing on specific things,” Brower said. “They played a really good game today and we just never gave up. There were times when we were down by a lot and our energy was really good, we never stopped believing in each other. We were really aggressive.”

Pizzimbono tallied six kills, 15 digs, four assists and one ace, while Pike had six kills and two digs for Sacred Heart, which has a record of 2-3 in the FAA and has also earned victories against non-league foes Loomis Chaffee School, Choate Rosemary Hall, Deerfield Academy and Kent School.

Izzy Nedder (three aces, five digs) and Paige Rigert (two kills, two blocks) also paced Sacred Heart.

“Our energy was great, even when we were down,” Luzzi noted. “I don’t think there was a point in the game where we were down by a lot. We just kept our heads up, which kept us positive, which was good.”

“The point differential was not big at all,” continued Luzzi, who also mentioned Sacred Heart’s several victories during their recent trip to Michigan, where they played against a number of schools in the Sacred Heart family. “Michigan we went undefeated and we came back there with a trophy. We played very well there too.”

Greenwich Academy is guided by first-season head coach Sebastian Poklukda.

“I thought that was a really well fought match from both teams on both sides,” Pokluda said. “It was a four-set thriller. The energy in this gym was really great and our bench did a really good job of coming out and being really loud.”

Pokluda was especially impressed with the determination his squad showed in winning the fourth set to avoid an always tense fifth set.

“There was a point in the fourth stretch where we just flipped the switch,” Pokluda noted. “Our players were like, we are going to celebrate every single point like it was the championship point of the FAA final, we were going 100 percent every single point and set.”

“Sacred Heart Greenwich made it really difficult,” GA’s first-season coach continued. “They have really great players and really great defensive scrappy touches and they did not let things fall. Offensively, they kept us guessing at certain points. Our girls did a really good job of being resilient, fighting on the ground and picking the ball up.”

“It’s always fun to play them, it’s always fun to battle,” SHG coach Beth Wilson-Jordan said of competing against GA. “We had a lead a few times, a few leads today, but didn’t close them. Losing the first set hurt. They were all close games, we were right there.”

Sacred Heart is hosting FAA volleyball foe School of the Holy Child today (Oct. 17th) at 2:30 p.m. Greenwich Academy is in action again on Oct. 19 against FAA opponent Hopkins School in New Haven.

Hailey Custer of Greenwich Academy discussed the Gators’ road victory over Sacred Heart.

“The team did an amazing job of getting out of hard spots,” Custer said. “There was a lot of times where a lot of the players could feel like they were in their heads, but we did a great job of bouncing back, putting all of our energy into the game and executing what we needed to execute.”

“It’s definitely a really fun rivalry we have in all sports, not just volleyball,” Custer noted of playing against Sacred Heart. “It’s always such a fun game and they’re such an amazing team and it’s such a great opportunity to play them. Our serve receive was very important today. We needed to get a good serve receive pass to set up the offense in the best possible way. I think we did an amazing job at serve receive today, so I’m really proud of the team for that.”

Here are some more scenes of the GA-SHG varsity volleyball match