For its final regular-season home match, Deerfield hosted the Taft School on Saturday. While the top-line score was 3-0 for Taft, the scores for each set (25-21, 26-24, 25-18) tell the more complete story of a close match between two strong teams playing great volleyball.
In the first set, Taft got out a small early lead but Deerfield was able to stay close to them with strong hitting down the line from Camila Navarro ‘20. Daphne Gavros ‘22 continues to impress with her ability to dig opposing hits and then step to the line and deliver crushing serves. Strong middle hitters from Taft challenged us all day, but Gavros and Nat Jimenez ‘20 were in exactly the right positions to be able to pick up their hits and turn them into offensive opportunities for Deerfield. Once we got our passing game solidified, Rosa Sun ‘21, Kaelene Spang ‘19, and Lara Akande ‘20 worked together to keep their blockers off-balance with slides, back sets, and quick ones that allowed our entire offense to flourish.
As named leaders on the team and on the court, co-captains Abby Bracken ‘19 and Georgia Quesnelle ‘19 showed their incredible leadership, spirit, and energy today. Whether it was a quick word of encouragement, a reset in the on-court huddle, or their full-throated cheers during set transitions, they set an incredible example today (and throughout the season) of how to be team leaders. Thank you!
This was the last regular-season home match for our five seniors (Alexia Baker, Abby Bracken, Soo-Min Lee, Georgia Quesnelle, and Kaelene Spang) and the entire school community came out to cheer them and the team on Saturday. It was a great energy in the Barn; thanks for the incredible support!
Deerfield has three away matches in the final week of the regular season, all of which have playoff implications, starting with a visit to NMH on Monday.