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Katie Cronin tallied 13 kills as Methuen edged Haverhill 3-2.

BILLERICA — Thanks to a remarkable comeback in last night’s Division 1 state volleyball semifinals, Central Catholic senior Alex Borrelli was feeling a delightful sense of deja vu.
“This is awesome, the greatest feeling ever,” said Borrelli. “I went to the state finals in basketball as a freshman and this is the same kind of feeling.”
It was a new feeling for most of the rest of the Raiders (21-2), but they were feeling just as good after they rallied from a two-game hole to defeat perennial power Lincoln-Sudbury, 3-2.
As a result, Central Catholic advances to Saturday’s 5 p.m. state finals at Algonquin High School against the winner of tonight’s Brookline-Barnstable matchup. Barnstable is the defending Division 1 state champ.
Early on last night, it looked unlikely that Central would punch a ticket to the finals. It dropped the first game 25-22 and didn’t look particularly good in the loss, serving four balls into the net and making a rash of unforced errors.
“I guess we were a little flat, but I thought we played more of our game after that,” said Borrelli, who led Central with 19 kills on the night.
Actually, the Raiders didn’t look much better early in the second game, either, trailing 10-6 before finally gaining some momentum. Borrelli started to heat up and senior Hunter Tuck (18 kills) got into a rhythm. Central eventually lost a donnybrook, 33-31, but that may have helped turn the corner.
“Even though we didn’t win that game, I thought it gave us the confidence to stick with what we do well,” said Central coach Gannon Paris. “The kids did a great job of sticking together when it didn’t look too good for us.
“In the first game, we were trying to do a little too much, hit too hard, try to be too cute. This is as big as anything as these girls have been involved with and it was kind of a new experience for them. Alexis (Michal) is the only one who was with us as a freshman. But after we broke it down and went back to playing like we can, we were all right.”
In fact, the Raiders seemed to get better the longer the match went on. While Borrelli was fairly consistent throughout, Tuck, Stephanie Graffeo (13 kills) and sophomore Amanda Williams got more involved with every point, leading to a 25-21 survival victory in the third game and a convincing 25-19 triumph in the fourth game, which Tuck closed out with a pair of kills.
The deciding fifth game was tension-filled and back and forth. But, trailing 12-11, the Raiders tied it on a Borrelli kill and then forced three Lincoln-Sudbury errors to grab the 15-12 victory and start looking ahead to Saturday.
Playing a large role in the triumph was Michal, who had an astounding 56 assists, a number that Paris believes “must be a school record,” as well as serving 13 points. Michelle Bouchard was also a force from the back line with four aces among her 13 points and Britni Spring placed superb defense and contributed several key service points as well.
“I can’t say enough about the whole team,” said Paris. “It’s a collective effort. We’re going to enjoy this.”
For Lincoln-Sudbury (19-3), junior Mandy Sifferlen was a force at the net as was Kelly White, one of only two seniors on the team. The Warriors had graduated six seniors from last year’s 22-2 squad that was the fourth L-S team in five years to reach the state finals.
“Central was the better team tonight, but we’ll be back,” said Lincoln-Sudbury coach Judy Katalina.

Central Catholic 3, Lincoln-Sudbury 2
Division 1 semifinals
at Billerica High
Kills: CC — Alex Borrelli 19, Hunter Tuck 18, Stephanie Graffeo 13; L-S — Mandy Sifferlen 18
Blocks: CC — Amanda Williams 4
Assists: CC — Alexis Michal 56
Service points (aces): CC — Michal 13, Michelle Bouchard 13 (4)
Digs: CC — Michelle Bouchard 30
Lincoln/Sudbury (19-3): 25 33 21 19 12 — 2
Central Catholic (21-2): 22 31 25 25 15 — 3

NORTHBOROUGH — For the third time in four years, the Central Catholic girls volleyball team found itself one victory away from a state championship. But once again, the Raiders found the experience anything but charming.

The Phillips Academy volleyball team won its second straight New England Class A volleyball title in impressive fashion, sweeping St. Paul's in the semifinals and then sweeping Choate in the finals. Among those playing well for the Big Blue (14-3) were setter Chelsea Ward, hitters Alexei Bell and Amanda Simard.

Every time Phillips Exeter challenged Phillips Andover, the Big Blue stepped up in a convincing 3-0 quarterfinal volleyball victory.

Facing a 7-7 deadlock in the first game, Zoe Roschach (12 for 13 serving, 7 kills and 7 blocks) and Jamie Shenk (12 of 14 serving with 3 aces, 5 kills) each had five-point service runs leading to a 25-12 win. When Exeter tied the second game at 11, the serving prowess of Chelsea Ward (20 for 20 serving, 26 assists) pushed the Big Blue to a seven-point advantage and a 25-17 victory. And in the final game, Andover fought off three set points and won, 28-26 on Roschach's serve.

Phillips Academy's volleyball team dropped the first game to Phillips Exeter but roared back with three straight games for a 3-1 victory. Alexi Bell had a huge all-around game for the Big Blue (11-3).

LAWRENCE — In the end, No. 2 was the undisputed No. 1.

Entering the Division 1 North volleyball tournament seeded second despite having beaten top-seeded Andover twice, Central Catholic pulled off the season trifecta. With its straight-set 25-23, 25-17, 18-26 victory last night at Lawrence High School, the Raiders have now won four of its past five North tourneys, including three Division 2 titles from in 2007 and 08.

ANDOVER — More of the same! That’s what the Andover girls volleyball team will be looking for tomorrow night (6 p.m. at Lawrence High) when it faces Central Catholic for the third time this year, this time in the Division 1 North championship. If the Golden Warriors can just play like they did last night while sweeping North Andover 25-13, 25-12 and 25-18 in the semifinals, they’ll do just fine according to veteran head coach George Sullivan. “We played very well tonight,” said Sullivan. “If we can carry this over, we’ll be right there with them (Central). We’re playing much better now than we were, but we need to just go out there and play without thinking about it.” Sullivan will certainly be looking for more of the same from 5-foot-11 senior hitter Elise Brogan, who led the Warriors (20-2) last night with 15 kills and five blocks and was particularly immense in the opening game. She has needed to take on a bigger role since co-captain Ava Bakhtyari got injured in the eighth game of the season. “It took us awhile after Ava got hurt to figure out what we had to do, but now I think we have a system down,” said Brogan. “We just have to block and play better defense against them (Central),” Brogan had plenty of help against the Knights. Co-captain Sarah Arvidson had 11 kills and led the team with 12 digs, Lauren Murtagh and Becky Hoffman were one-two in both assists and service points and Molly Cronin, Lauren Gibson and Sarah Weiner were added options at the net. For the second straight match, all 14 players got in the game. In what was the play of the night, on a ball that was going way deep, Arvidson and Weiner made brilliant recovery saves and Brogan finished off the point with her first of two straight kills in the third game. Good as they played, the Warriors must put this game behind them and start focusing on Central — without going overboard. “We’re definitely looking forward to playing them again, but we can’t get nervous,” said Brogan. “I think we were playing nervous against them last time.” For North Andover (17-6), Julia Titone led the way with six kills and five blocks despite turning her ankle in the opening game and getting it taped for the rest of the match. Kaylee Lambrinos had 19 digs to key the defense. “They’re tough at the net and their defense was really good — we couldn’t find an open spot,” said North Andover coach Veronica Schaefer. “But we had a successful season. I was pleased with how things went.”  

Central Catholic's volleyball team took care of business last night, bouncing No. 7 Peabody from the Division 1 North tourney in three straight games to set up a home semifinal matchup with third seed Reading tomorrow night.