The Canton High girls volleyball team is off to the Class S semifinals for the first time in team history after Friday night’s 3-2 win over No. 2 Valley Regional.
It’s been a groundbreaking campaign for the Canton High girls volleyball team.
The Warriors opened the season with a team-record nine-match winning streak, beating Avon for the first time ever. The Warriors finished with 13 wins including a first-ever victory over Granby.
The milestones haven’t stopped in the CIAC Class S tournament. For the first time, Canton has secured three wins in the state tournament and will be playing in the semifinals for the the first time.
No. 10 Canton (17-8) stunned No. 2 seed and defending state champion Valley Regional on Friday night in Deep River with a 3-2 decision, 16-25, 25-18, 25-23, 14-25, 15-5.
Canton will face No. 3 seed Hale Ray of Moodus (20-3) on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. at SMSA in Hartford for the right to advance to the state championship game on Nov. 14 or Nov. 15.
Mia Whilby had 13 kills and 16 digs to lead the Warriors while Emery Howard had 10 kills and a block. Sophia Mazza had 17 digs and 21 assists while liberio Audrey Lindquist had 20 digs.
Canton’s victory over Valley Regional (22-2) came over a Regional team that came into the match on an 18-game winning streak and had just won the Shoreline Conference championship and Shoreline Conference tournament in the past two weeks.
Regional beat Canton earlier this year, 3-1, in October and bounced Canton out of the state tournament a year ago with a 3-0 decision in the quarterfinals.
Valley Regional won the opening game of Friday night’s match with a 25-16 decision and had 9-6 lead in game two but Regional was making too many errors, allowing Canton to stay in the game.
Canton used an 11-2 run to take a 17-11 lead, thanks in part to seven Regional errors. Whilby and Howard each had four kills in the game was Canton tied the match at 1-1 with a 25-18 victory.
Game three was a tight one from start to finish. The match was tied three times before Regional went on a 6-1 run, sparked by four kills from Madelyn Delroso to take a 22-17 lead.
But Regional made some key errors and Howard got some huge kills as Canton closed out the game with an 8-1 run to earn a 25-23 decision.
Howard had a kill in the middle to tie the game at 22-22 and had a kill off a block to give Canton a 24-22 lead. Olivia Foy’s service ace closed out the game, giving Canton a 2-1 lead.
In game three, Whilby and Howard each had four kills.
Valley Regional jumped out to an 11-6 lead in game four. Howard had a block for a kill and Whilby slammed the ball to the court for a kill to cut the Regional lead to three, 11-8.
But Regional used an 7-2 run to take a 18-10 advantage and eventually tied up the match with a 23-14 decision.
In decisive game five, Canton used their hitting prowess and ability to play defense to prevail. Unlike in the previous four games where the winner needs to score 25 points, teams need to score 15 to win in game five.
Leading 2-1, Whilby had a kill down the line and Keira Gerhold had a block for a kill to put Canton up by three. A Regional hit that sailed out of bounds boosted the Canton lead to 5-1.
Whilby and Howard had kills along with Mazza on a big rally that gave Canton a 9-3 lead.
Mazza finished off the rally but it was Whilby who had two big digs in the rally to keep the ball alive.
Canton had a 6-0 run to take a 12-3 lead thanks to a kill from Mazza, a kill from Howard on a Regional pass that came over the net and four Regional errors. On one play, Howard made a block to keep the ball off the floor and Regional eventually hit the ball into the net for another Canton point.
This was just the second five-set contest for Canton in the CIAC tournament. The Warriors dropped a 3-2 decision to Old Lyme in 2023 in the first round of the Class S tournament.
Tuesday night’s game with Hale Ray will be the first meeting between the two teams. Hale Ray, also a member of the Shoreline Conference, did play Valley Regional in their season-opening match back in September, dropping a 3-1 decision.
Canton advanced to Friday night’s quarterfinal match with a 3-0 win over No. 23 Wright Tech-Stamford, 25-3, 25-18, 25-18 and a 3-1 decision over No. 26 East Catholic, 25-17, 25-9, 20-25, 25-17.
