YARMOUTH — Yarmouth hitter Evelyn Lukis was feeling under the weather and wasn’t happy that her team couldn’t close out Greely in three sets, so when she took the court for the fourth game Wednesday evening, she had one goal in mind.
“I was tired, so I just wanted to win and go home,” said Lukis. “I knew we had it. We finished strong.”
Lukis made sure the defending Class B champion Clippers finished off the pesky Rangers, producing eight kills and serving up a pair of aces as Yarmouth took the fourth game, 25-14, to complete a 3-1 victory.
Lukis had 16 kills in all as the Clippers won their 10th match in a row after a season-opening loss against undefeated Falmouth.
Greely had a four-matching winning streak stopped.
Kaitlyn Bennett’s serving was the difference in the first game. After a Lukis kill snapped a 15-15 tie, Bennett served nine consecutive points to close out the set.
“Kaitlyn has been recovering from knee surgery in the offseason and we’re slowly bringing her back,” said Clippers Coach Jim Senecal. “She’s a great player and it’s great to have her back in the lineup.”
Greely hung tough in the second game, too, drawing as close as 17-14 on a kill from Ciel Antoine. But three kills from Maggie Murray, another from Margaret McNeill and an ace from Sadie Gallant gave the Clippers a 25-17 win.
The Rangers, who have improved dramatically since a 1-4 start, rode the serving of Antoine and multiple digs and clutch passing from libero Audrey Boyle to eke out a 25-23 victory in the third game, extending the match.
Yarmouth then put it away in the fourth game, going up 7-1 behind Lukis’ hitting and serving. After Greely cut the deficit to 9-8, the next seven points went to the Clippers, featuring four Lukis kills. Yarmouth pulled away from there and ended the match on a Greely service fault.
“(Greely) gave us a good battle tonight,” Senecal said. “They kept us off balance and they kept returning balls, and their libero was very effective in the back row.”
Murray finished with 21 kills, Bennett had 15 service points and setter Sophie Dickson recorded 44 assists.
Yarmouth has the inside track on the top seed in Class B, although the Clippers still have key tests remaining at Washington Academy and Cape Elizabeth.
“We need a stronger performance and we need to get our game and our rhythm back, and if we do that, we should be fine,” Senecal said.
Greely (5-5) was paced by Antoine’s 10 assists and nine service points, eight kills from Katie Fitzpatrick, and Eliza Rowland’s seven service points and six kills.
“We just had to get some experience and now, we have to get some of our (injured) girls back,” said Rangers Coach Kelvin Hasch. “Tonight was probably the best we’ve played yet. We have four (matches) left and we’ll see what happens.”
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