Cheshire Girls’ Volleyball Stages Upsets En Route To SCC Final
November 7, 2009 by Greg Lederer
Cheshire High School girls’ volleyball coach Sue Bavone breaks the season into three parts. After sharing the Housatonic Division title (7-1; 14-6 overall record) with rival Shelton, the girls have turned their sights toward the Southern Connecticut Conference and Class LL Tournaments.
Bavone have never missed qualifying for the SCC. This year was a struggle at times, but despite being the last team into the tournament, Cheshire is just one win away from another championship. Cheshire upset Sacred Heart Academy (top seed; 25-22, 25-20, 21-25, 25-20) on Nov. 3 and then two days later, they defeated Guilford (fourth seed; 25-17, 18-25, 25-19, 25-20) 3-1 again to reach the SCC Final for 13th time in the last 14 years. Cheshire faces Jonathan Law (third seed) tonight, at 6 p.m. from North Haven High School.
“We’ve always considered this our tournament. Once we get in, we are there to win it,” said Bavone. “(Former CHS Athletic Director/Administrator/Coach) Wayne Candela told me that you judge a program by staying power. We strive to play at a high level.”
Bavone hopes for continued redemption. Cheshire dropped all five of their five-game matches, including two to Sacred Heart, before defeating the Pacers on Tuesday. The Rams, like-wise, lost both of their regular season matches (3-0, Sept. 17; 3-2, Oct. 13) to Law.
Service has been a barometer for the team this fall. When they are serving tough like in the Guilford match, Cheshire is tough to handle. Inconsistent serving is where they have struggled.
“Our serving was tough tonight,” added Bavone, of the Guilford match. “We had kids hitting hard serves and that gave them a lot of problems on (serve) receive.”
Cheshire captured their SCC-record seventh championship with a 3-0 sweep of Sacred Heart Academy last fall.