Farmington Executes Furious Comeback To Snare Class L Volleyball Title

EAST HAVEN, CT — One glance at the scoreboard just past the midway point of the third set of Saturday's Class L girls volleyball finals told a story quite the opposite from what history had predicted.

Top-seeded Farmington, winner of nine previous state championships and seeking to repeat last year's title run, found itself down two sets to none against 10th-seeded Bristol Central. The Rams had made it to the finals just once in school history, losing in straight sets to Joel Barlow two years ago.

Yet despite the diverse backgrounds of the two programs, Bristol Central was in an amazing situation to snare its first state title. The Rams led the third set 18-16, but Farmington showed its experience by battling back for a 25-22 victory.

The fourth set found Bristol Central in an even stronger position, just points away from the crown with a 23-14 lead, but again the River Hawks battled back to claim the game 27-25, setting up a race-to-15 fifth set.

The decisive game was all Farmington, which jumped to an 8-0 lead and never looked back, posting a 15-4 win that secured the River Hawks' move into double digits on the all-time state title list.

Game scores were 18-25, 24-26, 25-22, 27-25 and 15-4.

Farmington libero Jamie Zadrozny was accorded Most Valuable Player honors, collecting 33 digs in the finals. Setter Emily Sousa had 42 assists, Lucy Scudder had 16 kills, Sydnie Smith had 15 kills, Lauren Jones had 11 kills and Kiera Wilkes had 10 kills.

For Bristol Central, Grace Higgins accounted for 19 kills, Lily Kirk had 16 kills, Daigelis Figueroa recorded 30 digs and setter Lily Hinton posted 42 assists.