Windham girls volleyball cruises past Pelham in season opener

WINDHAM - Emily Frank was excited to see the Windham High School girls volleyball team back on the court on Wednesday.

To turn in the kind of performance the Jaguars did was a bonus.

Behind some solid serving, led by Frank, the defending Division II champions had little trouble with Pelham, sweeping the Pythons in three games. Scores were 25-2, 25-6 and 25-9.

Frank, a senior captain, did her part with 19 aces, many of which came in the first game, to go with five kills and Taylor Dufield added nine assists, two kills and two aces, as the Jaguars (1-0) recorded 33 aces as a team.

"That was awesome," Frank said. "We’ve been training for this season since the beginning of the summer. It was really good to get out here and play. Pelham always puts up a fight and it’s always good to see them. We came out and performed a lot better than I thought we would."

Windham also got four kills and three aces from Taylor Sawyer and four kills from Nina Berni.

"Once we got our offense able to go, we really executed it really well," Windham coach Jill Bartlett said. "It was spread out between four of our six hitters. That’s a good day right there."

The Jaguars led 6-2 in the first game when Frank went back to serve, and she would finish the game there, serving 19 points in a row.

"Coach said my toss was the same every single serve," she said. "That was really important. My mind was numb, I was just focused on getting the serve over and making sure we could make a play off it. I look at the court before I serve and try to pick out a spot."

Pelham (0-2) took a 3-2 lead early in the second game, but Windham won four points in a row to go up 6-3 and force the Pythons to take a timeout. Pelham kept it close for a little while, trailing 12-6, but the Jaguars again went on a big run to end it, winning the final 13 points behind the serving of Nikki Batson (five aces).

In the third game, Windham put together a couple of shorter runs to build up the lead before finishing off the sweep.

Both teams are back in action on Friday, as Windham heads to Gilford and Pelham hosts St. Thomas.