The Londonderry High School Girls’ Volleyball team continued their impressive postseason run with a dominant straight-sets victory over the Portsmouth Clippers in the Division I quarterfinals.
Following an outstanding regular season that saw the Lady Lancers finish 16-2 and earn the #2 seed in the NHIAA Division I Championship, the team received a first-round bye and jumped straight into quarterfinal action.
On Thursday night, Oct. 30, Londonderry hosted the #7 seeded Clippers, who had advanced after defeating Exeter 3-1 earlier in the week. The two teams had just met one week prior in Portsmouth, where the Lancers also swept the Clippers 3-0.
The result on home court was much the same, as Londonderry once again won in straight sets.
Early in the match, Portsmouth looked poised to challenge the Lancers, taking a few brief leads in the first set and holding a 17-14 advantage late. But after a timely Londonderry timeout, the home team rallied to take the set 25-22.
The final two sets were more decisive. The Lancers dominated at the net behind the powerful hitting of senior Riley Campo, sophomore Kendall Farnsworth and senior Elisabeth Kearney, cruising to 25-18 and 25-15 wins to close out the match.
In the second set, senior Maddy Normand served for 11-straight points helping to give the team a 10-point lead.
With the win, Londonderry advanced to the semifinals, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon (after press deadline) at Pinkerton Academy, where they were set to face #6 seeded Dover.
A victory there would send the Lancers to the Division I Championship match on Saturday, Nov. 8, at noon, where they would face the winner of the semifinal between #1 Pinkerton Academy and #5 Nashua North.