The young Viking boys’ volleyball team had nowhere to go but up at the spring season’s start. After some early growing pains, Mascenic has now reeled off three straight wins over larger schools after sweeping John Stark twice and then winning a tight one with Keene Friday.
“I was super psyched on this win for them because they came back from several small deficits,” coach Lauren Somero said after the 3-1 win. “They literally have no experience closing out a close game, climbing back in from behind…so it was a huge step forward for us.”
The season’s been full of steps forward for the inexperienced Vikings, who entered last week at 0-3 before beating John Stark on the road to earn their first win Tuesday night.
At one point, Bryce Traffie reeled off an impressive 12 straight service points. Josiah Barthelmess had three blocks and Spencer Dilda had five kills, as did promising eighth-grader Kirvan Hughes, on the way to a 3-0 victory.
It was more of the same at Mascenic Thursday, where the Vikings beat the Generals 3-0 once again. Dilda was nursing a cumulative injury but was able to work on his precision, against-the-grain hitting rather than his overpowering spikes, and finished with 13 kills.
“I told him you’re going to target the line and you’re going to pull off the block, which is all just off-speed stuff,” Somero said, “and he did an awesome job.”
The Vikings are settling into their roles nicely as the season progresses. Traffie, Barthelmess and Dilda are imposing at the net; Matt Swanson is becoming an excellent setter, and eight-grader Kirvan Hughes looks like the do-it-all guy of the future for the Vikings.
“He can jump out of his shoes and he’s ridiculously coachable,” Somero said. “The kid’s got sweat pouring down his face and he’s like ‘What’s next?’ What every coach wants every player to do with their time in the gym is just be ready for absolute torture and then ask for more.”
The Vikings put so much breathing room between themselves and the Generals that Somero was able to insert middle-schooler Aiden Carignan into the game. Carignan generally serves as the Vikings’ hype man, having joined the team with no promise of playing time given his youth and inexperience; Thursday, he got a taste of varsity action as he entered the game in the third period to wild applause from both teams and the attending fans.
It was a lot tighter Friday night as Keene took a set from Mascenic and led in several others, but the Vikings pulled off their third straight win, 3-1, battling to a 25-23 final-set victory to seal the deal.
Dilda had his power back Friday and had 17 kills; Hughes added five.
Mascenic (3-3) is at Souhegan Tuesday.