The Red Storm and the Rangers traveled to Gorham on Friday night, Oct. 28, for a rematch of the 2015 Class A volleyball State Final. This round belonged to Greely, who dominated Scarborough in the early going and claimed a 3-1 victory in the end.

“Greely was just the better team,” said Scarborough head coach Jon Roberts. “If we were mentally ready, we would’ve competed, but clearly weren’t … I just think Greely wanted it more. Obviously Kayley (Cimino) is a great player, Molly (Chapin) as well; to have that caliber senior come through Greely and not win – I think they had a lot of motivation.”

Greely jumped out quickly in the first set, grabbing a 3-0 lead and slowly building. At 9-4, Roberts called timeout, which seemed to settle his girls down a bit. Scarborough continued to trail, but battled ferociously, pulling within three at 21-18 and forcing the Rangers to call a timeout of their own. Nevertheless, Greely held on and claimed the set 25-20.

The Rangers then thoroughly controlled the second set. Scarborough scooted ahead to begin, 5-3, but soon mired themselves in errors, giving up a plethora of points on long returns, smashes into the net and net violations. Greely took the game by the shockingly lopsided margin of 25-8.

Asked what went wrong in the second set, Roberts laughed a touch sardonically. “It’d be a shorter list to say what was going right in game two,” he said. “I didn’t even think it was a service run; I thought it was us making weird decisions: not getting the right person the ball at the right time. It’s not like they were aceing us; we weren’t doing what we should be doing. And Greely played great defense; the ball never really hit the floor. Our hitters weren’t in rhythm, and our setters were making interesting decisions, putting a lot of pressure on not our leaders.”

The Storm looked more themselves in the third set, determinedly inching ahead to 5-4, then 9-5, 12-5, 16-10, and so forth. Asia Mattress, Haley Nelson and Jordyn Cowan looked particularly strong as Scarborough claimed the game 25-18.

Throughout the night, the Storm seemed to have trouble keeping their smashes in bounds on the Greely side of the net. All too often, their balls went just long, which Roberts attributed to his girls’ being out of synch with one another. Luckily, they adjusted, frequently tipping the ball over the net into shallow territory and scoring finesse points instead. In the end, however, that approach wouldn’t be enough. Greely secured the title by taking the fourth set 25-20.

“It goes back to: If we’re in rhythm, we’re hitting the ball hard, they’re not digging it,” Roberts said. “We weren’t in rhythm, so we had to find a way to score. I was proud of my kids, trying to find a different way to score. And they struggled with that for a little bit. But you can’t win just like that; you’ve got to be a little more aggressive.”

Roberts remarked on the season as a whole: “This has been a special group for me. I’m more upset about that than losing a game,” he said. “These are kids that’ve become my family. That’s the thing – that’s why people are crying. Obviously they want to win, but I think the realization that we don’t have practice on Monday … All teams go through that. We were lucky to be in the last game. That’s what reflecting on, the time with the kids.”

The Storm say goodbye to 14 seniors in June: Nelson, Cowan, Abby Snow, Emma Budway, Kacey Foerster, Lilly Young, Caroline Goodwin, Samantha Gott, Raegan Sheil, Lauren Quintiliani, Jillian Harvie, Alice Callahan, Aubrey Humpage and Libby Chadbourne.

Scarborough entered the playoffs ranked second to the Rangers, having fallen to them 3-0 in both teams’ season-opener, back on Sept. 2. The Storm went undefeated after that, reaching the bracketing at 13-1. They offed No. 15 Marshwood 3-0 in the prelims, No. 7 Bonny Eagle in the quarters and No. 6 Yarmouth 3-1 in the semis, thus earning their rematch with Greely. They retire for the season at 16-2. The Rangers finish 18-0.

Red Storm volleyballers pose with their new hardware after falling to Greely 3-1.

Stormer Caroline Goodwin tries for a dig vs. Greely in Friday night’s Class A State Final.

Scarborough senior Captain Kacey Foerster unwinds into a smash near near the net vs. Greely.

Stormers Haley Nelson and Jordyn Cowan team up for a block.