By Dave Stewart
MaxPreps.com
DARIEN, Conn. – There’s a certain poise which must naturally come with being a Darien Blue Wave volleyball player. It’s a composure and a confidence which comes from being part of a program which is easily among the most storied in Connecticut high school sports history.
Head coach Laurie LaRusso has built a remarkable dynasty for the Blue Wave, with 15 FCIAC Championships in 16 years, including the last eight straight, and 13 state titles in 15 years, including the last seven straight.
Upholding the Blue Wave volleyball tradition would seem to come with a bit of extra pressure, but that’s not the case, at least not according to senior tri-captain Samantha Stevenson.
“It’s a good thing because we love the challenge and the competition,” Stevenson said. “Coach (Laurie LaRusso) always says that we’re the team that has the target on our back because everybody wants to try to beat us. It’s a tradition and we want to keep it going. We’re always looking forward to great competition.”
Though the Blue Wave did indeed end up lifting yet another FCIAC championship plaque in the air last week, this has been anything but a typical Darien season.
In just their second match of the season, the Wave was beaten by the Greenwich Cardinals, 3-1, ending Darien’s 141-match winning streak.
While the talk at Darien practices is never about winning streaks or even championships, there was a different feeling in the air after that defeat.
“We talked about not coming into games kind of cocky,” Stevenson said. “Just because we’re Darien, it doesn’t mean we’re going to just win. We learned to focus on every point and not just the outcome and then we really worked our butts off in practice.
“We talked about what we needed to change in order to come back and beat them in the FCIAC finals,” senior tri-captain and setter Emily Cordner said. “That was really a motivation factor for us throughout the season. We were just hoping to get the chance to meet them again later on.
“It definitely motivated me,” Cordner added. “After that, we all came to practice ready to work. We needed to get better from where we were in we wanted to win FCIACs.”
So when the opportunity to face Greenwich arose once again, the Blue Wave was primed and ready for the rematch.
The Cardinals, who were a perfect 20-0 during the regular season, won the first set 25-19 after closing with a 15-4 rally.
In the second set, Darien built an eight-point advantage at 16-8, but the Cards came back to make it close before the Wave won, 25-20.
Senior tri-captain Phoebe Maglathlin’s five-point run on serve pushed Darien ahead in the third set, as the wave won 25-21.
In the fourth set, the score was tied at 22-22 before Cordner served out the game, with a block by junior Sarah Gorski finishing off the Cards.
“We were definitely feeling revenge there,” Stevenson said. “We had to get them back. They couldn’t do that to us twice because we’re much better than that. We needed to be more of a team and we were for that game.
“The first time we played them, it was our lack of communication,” Stevenson said. “This year, it’s not the same as last season and we weren’t really settled in yet. More towards the end of the season, when we saw them again, we had become our own team and we were together and that’s what helped.”
The Wave also was able to slow down, if not totally stop, Greenwich senior co-captain Erika Videtto, who led the Cardinals in the early-season win.
“We came in with a real game plan and we knew that we needed to put some kind of blocker defense on Erika, so we had a couple of different defenses in place in order to slow her down,” Cordner said. “Then our serve-receive really gave us the upper hand there.”
Cordner was named the tournament MVP and had 26 assists, 11 service points and 11 digs in the final. Stevenson had 14 digs, 7 points and 7 kills, and Maglathlin had 14 points, 6 digs and 4 kills, as the tri-captains delivered a stellar performance.
The Wave had big efforts from a number of players, including senior Chloe Drimal (4 points, 3 blocks), Gorski (6 blocks), senior Lauren Miller (14 digs), senior Shannon Moore (10 points, 8 digs), senior Britney Hughes (6 kills, 7 digs), and junior Colby Billhardt (7 kills, 4 blocks).
The Blue Wave owes the majority of its success to LaRusso, who the players described as having an unbeatable work ethic.
“She’s very organized and she goes out of her way to make sure that we are fully prepared and we know every thing about the other team by scouting and watching tapes,” Stevenson said. “She does everything possible to make sure we’re at our best and we’re fully prepared.”
“She puts so much work into this team,” Cordner said. “She doesn’t sleep, she spends hours watching film and it’s really great knowing that she’s putting so much into this for us and the team.”
LaRusso’s Blue Wave hasn’t missed a beat in the State Class L tournament, either. After a first-round bye as the second seed, the Blue Wave rolled to 3-0 wins over No. 18 Naugatuck, 25-8, 25-9, 25-4, and No. 10 Bristol Eastern, 25-12, 25-12, 25-17. In all this season, Darien has lost just four sets — all to Greenwich.
Next up for the Blue Wave is a semifinal match with No. 3 Farmington (18-2) at 7 p.m. Thursday at Fairfield-Ludlowe. The Class L championship match will be held Saturday at 6 p.m. at Newington.
For Cordner, another state crown is an obvious goal, but going out in Blue Wave style is the most important thing.
“Winning states and just having a good game,” Cordner said, “going out strong and playing as a team — that’s definitely the way I want to end it.”
Dave Stewart, the Sports Editor of the New Canaan (Conn.) Advertiser, is a MaxPreps.com writer and photographer. He may be reached at 203-966-9541 or at sports@ncadvertiser.com