Taking the long Wednesday trip to Hotchkiss, Deerfield varsity volleyball emerged with a victory over the Bearcats, 3-0.
With only a Tuesday practice before the match and missing a couple players due to injury/illness, Deerfield’s abbreviated warm-up showed in the first set as strong serving from Hotchkiss allowed them to jump out to an early lead. After this opening, Deerfield regained their composure and brought the match back to their strong fundamentals to draw even and then eventually take the lead and win the set 25-22. Lara Akande ‘20 and Kaelene Spang ‘19 brought their strong hitting and worked to hold the effective middle hitting from Hotchkiss in check while Nat Jimenez ‘20 provided strong defensive work to set up our offense.
In the second set, Deerfield got out to an early lead on strong serving from Abby Bracken ‘19 and Camila Navarro ‘20. Rosa Sun ‘21 moved the ball around effectively to our hitters, including Evan Burkert ‘21 and Aoife Bruce ‘22, but Hotchkiss continued to play strong volleyball and was able to take advantage of some Deerfield miscues to go on a serving run that brought the set to 18-18. At that point, Georgia Quesnelle ‘19 showed her senior leadership by taking control of the match with smart play and excellent serving that allowed Deerfield to reassert control of the set and finish out the 2nd set with a win, 25-21.
In the 3rd set, Deerfield and Hotchkiss traded points initially before Deerfield was able to pull away for the win, 25-16.
With another long trip on Saturday to Exeter for a 2 pm match, Deerfield will look to have a couple of great days of practice. We are also excited to host a youth volleyball clinic on Thursday afternoon for the Deerfield community.