WINDHAM — It takes a team effort to propel a squad to a state championship and that’s exactly what the Biddeford Volleyball team received on Saturday as it dominated Falmouth 3-0 to win the school’s first state title in volleyball.
Biddeford set the tone early in the match winning the first game 25-11, then winning games two and three 25-22 and 25-17 for the title.
Keila Grigware, a senior, had 10 kills while fellow senior Alyssa Grigware added nine kills.
“They played so well today,” Biddeford coach Ruth Shaw said of her team. “This is probably the best I have ever seen one of my teams play. They were spot on.”
Helping matters for Biddeford was the rise of several players who had big days, especially Renee Trottier who had five kills, including two momentum changing kills in the second game, one that gave Biddeford a lead and the other that stopped Falmouth from mounting a comeback.
“I just knew I had to come out and play the best I could today,” Trottier said. “We all played so well.”
Biddeford entered the match as the overall No. 1 seed earning a 13-1 record during the regular season. Its only loss was to Falmouth in September.
The Tigers reached the state title game on Saturday beating perennial power Greely, 3-2, last week as the Rangers sought to win their eighth straight state championship.
The Tigers, on Saturday, dominated Falmouth the way they had dominated the season.
“We said at the beginning of the season that we wanted to win the state championship and that was our goal,” Grigware said. “We knew from the first day that this team was good enough to do it.”
It also helped that Players such as Kaitlyn Lebreux had an almost flawless game. The defensive specialist, who is only a sophomore, converted 52 passes and only made three errors.
“That’s incredible,” Shaw said.
Freshman Bailey Cote had five blocks and senior Deanna Tourigny served up five aces and had five kills.
“This is just an unbelievable feeling,” Tourigny said. “We just couldn’t have played any better. I still can’t believe it.”
In the first game, Grigware had eight kills and Drapeau came through with four kills to set the tone early.
At one point Biddeford went up 21-5 before pulling out the 25-11 win.
In Game 2 Falmouth appeared to have weathered the storm jumping out to leads of 5-1 and 14-10 before the Tigers stormed back thanks to Trottier’s kills. Biddeford won the game 25-22 on a Drapeau dump shot.
In Game three, the Yachtsmen made it competitive tying the Tigers at eight, but a Grigware spike, another Trottier kill and a Cote block eventually gave the Tigers some breathing room as they took leads of 14-10, 17-13, and eventually won the game 25-17.
As Autumn Dube served the game-winning point, the crowd of about 250 Biddeford supporters hushed before Falmouth couldn’t return the serve and the Biddeford bench erupted into celebration.
“We worked so hard all season for this,” said Drapeau who played her final match for the Tigers and finished a stellar four-year varsity career. “We are going to enjoy this.”
— Contact Al Edwards at 282-1535, ext. 317.
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