Red Raider Volleyball Girls Dispatch New Bedford in South Quarterfinals

Too quick. Too precise. Too aggressive. Too smooth. Too athletic. Too well-coached. Too cool. 

Way too cool.

Unified and acting as if they had shared each other's dreams the evening before last night's Division 1 South Sectional Semifinals, the Barnstable High School girls volleyball team (20-0) ripped through three matches last night as if its opponent was a mere stepping stone toward the Valhalla of all high school volleyball games: the Division 1 State Championship.

It is a place Barnstable has been to 15 times since 1993 and it has come home with the hardware in 13 of those visits. It appears that in this 2011 campaign, head coach Tom Turco's girls have no less a goal locked in their collective sights.

While the visiting New Bedford Whalers took a lead in the second match in the best of five set last night on the parquet floor in Hyannis, the momentum was fleeting as Barnstable got back on top and stayed there until the game was completed in a perfect, 3-0 sweep.

Barnstable defeated the Whalers 25-10, 25-17 and 25-12 and the team now heads to the Division 1 South Sectional Championship on Saturday at 5 pm at Pembroke High School.

In last night's victory it was plain to see why junior Kayla Crook set a new school record this year by becoming the fastest Red Raider to ever reach the rare 1,000-assist milestone, and it was even clearer to fans why senior captain Kaylee Deluga is a force to be reckoned with. On kills, blocks and virtually every other statistic applied to the fast-paced sport, time and time again, Deluga was a one-woman wrecking crew soaring high above the net at center court, her soft, Houdini-like lobs as knee-weakening to the Whalers as were her vicious hard spikes.

And when Deluga wasn't sending missiles to the Whaler back line, then it was senior Regan Bristol, a fellow six-footer, whose whip-like drives and stoic blocks up front were eye-opening.

With a blend of precision, tact, patience, timing and sheer dominance, Barnstable stacked up the points in the first match, advancing to an 11-3 difference, then building up to an 18-7 mark before a Crook to Bristol assist made it 22-9. It almost seemed as if the entire affair was choreographed like a Broadway version of The Nutcracker. A time out with BHS ahead 24-10 mattered little as the Red & White ended the first match a moment later, 25-10.

In the second match, Barnstable seemed temporarily swayed by a reinvigorated New Bedford squad that did not appear to want to go down quietly. Ahead 8-3, Barnstable saw its lead slowly dematerialize as the Whalers launched a counteroffensive and knotted things up at 10-10.

But leave it to another Red Raider senior, the spritely but wholly athletic Carolyn Morin, to revitalize and reawaken her counterparts with a lightning-fast kill from one side of the court to the other to give BHS back its lead at 11-10. But in spite of the motivating point, New Bedford did not relent, coming back to tie the game at 12-12, then surge ahead, 13-12.

But Crook tied things up at 13-13 with a nifty move, and that was all it seemed the Red Raiders would need , jumping to 15-13, 19-16, 22-17 and then a tag- team net effort by Lynne Hibbard and Deluga sealed the deal.

The Red Raiders' game faces turned even more stoic in the third match and while things were close with BHS on top by just a 9-7 margin, it was all the hosts would need to march forward. With Bristol back in off the bench, it was lights out. New Bedford took a time out with the Red Raiders leading 19-9 but no stratagem would have assuaged the stinging triumvirate of Deluga, Bristol and Hibbard up front.

A gymnasium that took well into the first match to fill, had grown to near-capacity as the final points neared and cheers were in abundance by game's end, but almost as if the collective student-body was saving its best for last. Yes, this affair was just a stepping stone in a long path forged by decades of dedication and countless minutes of hard work.

BHS has 13 Division 1 state championships in its trophy case and has won seven of the last eight titles. The way things look right now, the Red Raiders appear ready for a National title, nevermind another state one. It can be done.

Way too cool.