Pinkerton girls volleyball bounces back to beat Exeter

EXETER - After being outplayed in the second set of Monday’s night volleyball match against Exeter High School, Pinkerton Academy once again found itself in a battle during the pivotal third set against the underdog Blue Hawks.

The Astros snapped an 18-18 tie by closing out the third set strong for a 25-19 win, and they left no room for drama with a 25-9 win in Set 4 to wrap up a 3-1 Division I victory. Pinkerton picked up a 25-15 win in Set 1, before Exeter evened the match with a 25-20 win in Set 2.

“(Exeter) always make it tough for us. (Coach) Mike (McDonnell) does a great job of putting his girls into position and he made some adjustments in that Game 2, and he did some things to take us out of our game,” Pinkerton coach Todd Royce said. “They passed the ball really well in those games in the middle, and they were able to find spots on the floor and get the ball to their hitters consistently in both Games 2 and 3.

“We started controlling our passing a little bit better and our servicing improved tremendously in that fourth game,” Royce added. “We were able to to get them out of their system in Game 4 and make them do things they didn’t want to do.”

Senior Ella Dandrade led the way for Pinkerton with 13 kills and 29 digs, while sophomore Lily Heywood added 12 kills and 18 digs. Junior Reese Asselin had 17 digs and three aces.

Pinkerton (14-2) can lock up the No. 3 seed in the Division I tournament that starts Oct. 31 with a win in either Wednesday’s match at Keene (1-15) or Thursday’s regular-season finale at home against Windham (7-9).

“It’s definitely a great game when everyone was contributing something,” Dandrade said. “I think we struggled without communication in the second set, but we did a good job of coming back in the third set and refocusing.”

Exeter (9-7) rests in a three-way tie with Timberlane and Bedford for ninth place and would likely have to win its final two games of the regular season and get some help to host a prelim match. The Blue Hawks host Nashua South (16-0) on Wednesday and visit Salem (10-6) on Friday. 

There weren’t many positives that went Exeter’s way in its first set loss, but the exception came early when senior Sam Wiberg set up Dana Litzelman for her 1,000th career assist.

Wiberg’s milestone comes four months after propelling the Exeter softball team to the Division I championship as a dominant pitcher and dangerous leadoff hitter. Wiberg didn't became Exeter’s primary setter until she was a sophomore

“She’s a heck of a volleyball player, too,” Exeter coach Mike McDonnell said. “I’m not surprised she got 1,000; I’m surprised she got them so quickly. She’s ferocious. If there is a game on the line, you want her to be out there for sure.”

Exeter shook off its rough first set by by going on a 7-0 run in Set 2 to take a commanding 14-4 lead. Litzelman (11 kills, five aces) delivered a pair of aces during the stretch, to go with two blocks by Abby Williams.

Pinkerton closed to within 22-19 following a Heywood kill, but Exeter took back serve off an unforced error and closed out the 25-20 win.

“We were catching up with the pace. We played some teams in a row who weren’t as quick or as fast, so coming off the weekend I thought we were behind the pace in the third set,” McDonnell said. “We talked quite about it between sets, adjusted, and I felt like we got our blocks in place pretty well and execute some play we talked about.”

Exeter’s momentum carried into Set 3, but Pinkerton kept pace and took the lead when Dandrade broke an 18-18 tie with block. Ella Koelb (32 assists, eight digs) served up a Haywood kill to give the Astros a 22-19 lead, before Asselin served up two aces and Sarah Taylor’s block secured the 25-19 win.

“Our intensity just got better as the game went along,” Asselin said. “We were just serving tough and any time you serve tough it works good. We just had to be more smart about our serves."

Pinkerton dominated early in Set 4, as a Dandrade kill and Koelb ace gave the Astros a 14-3 lead.

“This team has been terrific all season,” Royce said. “We’ve got really good senior leadership group, we’ve got three girls who do a really good job of leading the team as well as following it on the court playing. We got a young group, too, who continues to work hard.”

Dandrade and Asselin were the only starters returning from last year’s team, but they knew early on they had a special group. Now they’re ready for the next phase of the season.

“We’ve been excited all year that we can make it far in the tournament,” Dandrade said. “We just have to come into practice and prepare the way we know we can.”