Pinkerton girls volleyball starts fast, fights off Dover comeback for win (video)

DERRY - Todd Royce knows that his Pinkerton Academy girls volleyball team is going to keep battling for points no matter what is happening on the court.

Whether that means bouncing back from a lopsided set, or getting banged up when diving into the bleachers, the Astros will keep on going.

After starting strong in the first two games, Pinkerton had to hold off a furious comeback by Dover, and complete a rally of its own, for a 3-1 win over the Green Wave in a Division I match Monday. Game scores were 25-16, 25-14, 9-25 and 25-20.

The Astros (11-1) were down early in the fourth set, falling behind 5-1 and 9-4, before a 15-4 run gave Pinkerton a six-point lead on the way to the win.

"This is a very resilient bunch," Royce said. "They are a hard-working team and they are going to give everything they’ve got on every point, no matter the score, no matter what is happen. They came out and kept battling.

"We’ve had a few instances of it over the year, but that was a great sign of it, battling back after a real tough third-set loss. (Dover) had a lot of momentum and they were hitting the heck out of the ball. To bounce back off that was great."

Pinkerton got a big all-around game from setter Ella Koelb, as the sophomore finished with 29 assists, six kills and two blocks, while Sarah Taylor had 13 kills and Nicole Valcourt had six kills and three blocks. Lily Heywood also had six kills and Ella Dandrade had 24 digs and five kills, despite crashing into the bleachers in the first game and cutting open her right elbow.

Dandrade stayed in the match after the crash, but play had to be stopped when her arm began bleeding. The senior got patched up while coaches cleaned the court and she ended up playing the entire match.

"This group works hard every day and they give you everything they’ve got," Royce said. "The perfect example of that is (Dandrade), she goes flying into the bleachers, and she continued to play. She kept battling through it. That’s just the heart this team has."

Through the first two sets, Dover (9-3) was unable to match the intensity, as the Green Wave fell behind by 11 points in the first set and a dozen in the second.

"We did not play like ourselves," Dover coach Whitney Carrier said. "We were fighting back the whole time and that’s not like us. There were a lot of errors on our part. It’s hard to win when you’re making tons of errors."

Down 2-0, Carrier made a lineup adjustment and the Green Wave came out strong to start Game 3. Pinkerton used its first timeout after Dover went up 10-2 and then used another when the lead grew to 15-3.

The Green Wave went on the run behind the serving of Kyra and Katy Cantwell and the hitting of Rachel Vitko, who finished with a team-high 16 kills.

"I think we just made less errors," Carrier said. "I also changed up the lineup a little bit, and maybe that gave them more confidence. Really, just looking at the stats, we just had less errors, and when you’re playing a good team, you’ve got to make as few mistakes as possible."

It took that set for the Astros' to adjust to Dover's changes.

"Their outside hitters started to really hit the ball hard and they were finding good spots on the floor," Royce said. "They started finding the open spots and made some adjustments. They changed their block schemes a little bit and did a nice job of taking us out of the game. They got that momentum and they’ve got some really good hitters."

It looked like Dover was going to keep that momentum in the fourth set, but after the Green Wave took the early lead, Pinkerton came back, with Sierra Edgecomb recording four of her 13 service points and Ellie Cashman (five aces) getting four of her eight.

Dover was able to cut the Astros' lead to three, 20-17, but Pinkerton pulled away again and held on for the win.

The Green Wave will look to bounce back Wednesday when they host Nashua North, while Pinkerton is off until Friday, when the Astros host Bishop Guertin.