Game plan works as Gilford girls volleyball sweeps Laconia to reach D2 championship

DERRY - There were a number of things the Gilford High School girls volleyball team had to do in order to get past Laconia in the Division II semifinals.

But it started with one thing, and from there the Golden Eagles were able to build off that.

No. 1 Gilford paid extra attention to No. 5 Laconia's Hannah Dow, trying to force the Sachems to get the ball to someone else, and the Golden Eagles used their experience and composure to grab a 3-0 win Tuesday at Pinkerton Academy. Game scores were 25-13, 25-19 and 25-23.

The win sends the Golden Eagles (18-0) to the championship, their 21st title-match appearance, where they will look to win the program's 16th title, and first since 2015, against No. 3 Milford on Saturday at 7 p.m.

"They came at us, and I’ll give it to them, they are scrappy," Gilford coach Amy Tripp said. "They had nothing to lose as the underdog. I’m happy that we won 3-0, I think it was a great performance by my team.

"We had a game plan and I thought we did a good job sticking to the game plan. Last time we played them, Hannah Dow tipped a lot over the top of the block. We put our rightside hitter in there to pick up those tips. I don’t feel like she controlled the game with those tips like the last time. We picked the holes in deep corners, so I was really happy with that."

Alexis Boisvert led Gilford with 14 kills and had 16 digs, while Margaret Mcneil had 10 kills and 20 digs. Karly Sanborn had 26 assists with a block and a kill while Abigail O'Connor had four kills and three blocks and Samantha Holland had 16 digs.

Dow finished with 16 kills and six digs for Laconia (13-5) while Avy Bartlett had 13 kills, seven digs and seven blocks. Caitlin Beattie and Gabrielle Caravona combined for 29 digs and Nora Dunleavy had four blocks, as the Sachems were making their first final four appearance in 19 years.

"It was exciting to get back," Laconia coach Mary Anne Myers said. "We had a different view of how we wanted things to go. Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way. We made a lot of mental errors, a lot of mistakes, when we needed to get points. You can’t do that (against Gilford)."

The Golden Eagles were able to get out to an early lead in the first game, going up 8-3 before the Sachems used a timeout. Laconia as able to close the gap to four points, 11-7, but Gilford won 16 of the final 22 points to take the first set.

Laconia grabbed the momentum going into the second set, taking a 5-1 lead behind the serving of Caravona and Dow, but Gilford came back, taking nine of 13 points to pull in front 11-8. This time, the Sachems were able to keep it close, tying the match at 11, and after the Golden Eagles went back up, closing to within one, 16-15.

"Laconia is the scrappiest team we play," Boisvert said. "They don’t give up. Playing Gilford is what they want to do because they always show up to play us."

Gilford was able to hold on for the win, but Laconia again took the lead in the third set, and held on to it longer, taking leads of 17-12 and 20-15 before the Golden Eagles started to come back. They won three straight points to force the Sachems to take a timeout, and then took four in a row to go up 22-21 and eventually closed out the match.

"It told me a lot," Myers said of her team's effort. "I have a lot of seniors and they didn’t really want to be done. They dug in, fought hard and gave it our best. It just didn’t go our way."