Coming off a historic week that saw it earn its first state tournament berth in nearly a decade, the Wilton High volleyball team hit a rough patch this past week, losing four times in a span of seven days.
The most recent loss was a 3-0 defeat to Trumbull by scores of 25-15, 25-9, 25-16.
The Warriors (8-8) were coming off a 3-2 loss to Trinity Catholic at home last Friday, a 3-1 loss at Danbury last Friday, and 3-0 defeat to Darien at home on Monday.
“We haven’t been executing as well with the ball on our side of the net, and we’re making too many errors at critical times,” said head coach Steve Brienza.
He said the Warriors were also dealing with a difficult end-of-the-season schedule, with most teams fighting for postseason berths.
“We’re in the home stretch and there’s a lot of tough opponents. Every match from now is against opponents looking to get a win,” he said. “We have to get back to playing together better and working well as a team.”
In the loss to Trinity, Wilton won the first game easily, 25-15, but fell behind 2-1 as the Crusaders won the next two games by scores of 25-17 and 26-24. The Warriors won game four, 25-16, but lost the pivotal fifth game, 15-12.
“We just made too many unforced errors and gave them points we needed to have,” said Brienza.
Rachel Low had 28 assists and seven digs and Sommer Rogg had 19 kills and seven service points (one ace) to lead Wilton, while Ava Martinelli finished the match with 14 service points and 13 digs.
On Friday, Danbury scored a 3-1 win over Wilton with scores of 25-14, 25-18, 23-25 and 25-20.
Rogg (four service points, nine digs, seven kills), Low (five service points, three aces, 15 assists, seven digs) and Sophie Phelan (five service points, two aces, nine digs) led the Wilton effort.
On Monday, the Warriors had some good moments but inconsistent play doomed them to a 3-0 loss to Darien, by scores of 25-21, 25-19, 25-23.
Martinelli (eight service points,18 digs), Low (11 assists, 11 digs) and Rogg (six kills, 12 digs) were the standouts for Wilton.
On Wednesday, Rogg had four kills and five digs, along with six service ponts (two aces) in the loss to Trumbull. Julia Musilli had six kills and four digs, while Low had 11 assists.
Liv Borski led Trumbull (11-4) with 15 kills and 10 digs, while Ally Nielsen had 33 assists and Joanne Heyder 14 digs.
The Warriors will look to finish strong, and play more consistently in all areas, as they close out the regular season in the next week with three matches.
“It’s those things we’re going to be working on in practice — getting back to all parts of our game working at the same time. The sooner we can do that, the better,” Brienza said.