By Michael Letendre
STORRS – The Bristol Eastern girls soccer program, the 27th rated team in the Class L field, ended its season on Monday night in first round play.
The Lancers battled No. 6 Edwin O. Smith and ended up falling to the Panthers by a 3-0 final in Storrs.
Smith (11-2-4) advanced to play No. 11 Ellington – a 3-1 overtime victor against No. 22 East Haven.
The Lancers ended its season at 5-9-2 overall.
But when checking out the CIAC website for Eastern’s tournament result, a strange score appeared at the bottom of the bracket.
Check it out:
Apparently, after the Panthers were done with eighty minutes of grueling action on the pitch against the Lancers, Smith challenged Eastern to an impromptu volleyball showdown.
And it seems like the Lancers accepted, falling in three straight sets (25-17, 25-7, and 25-12) to Edwin O. Smith.
The bus must have been late again in picking up the Eastern players in Storrs so what was the next logical thing to do?
Go inside and play a little volleyball of course.
So what were the details of the match?
Did outside hitter Ciara Collins lead Eastern in kills?
Was Maura Cyr, a right side specialist, able to tally a couple aces along the way?
Is Audra Porowski as good a setter as she claims to be?
What about the back line play of libero Grace D’Amato?
And does Eastern team manager Victoria Kosciukiewicz even know how to record volleyball stats?
It was a strange quirk that a volleyball score somehow was posted along with the Eastern/Smith girls soccer result.
What was even more puzzling is the fact the Edwin O. Smith volleyball squad was in action on Monday, from Storrs no less, and belted No. 29 Wethersfield by a 3-0 final but the Panthers won by set scores of 25-16, 25-15, and 25-14 which weren’t the same tallies on the soccer results page.
Was the bout between BE and E.O. part of a volleyball undercard that evening?
Will Eastern coach Scott Redman ask for extra pay for coaching – and losing – the volleyball match as well?
His record on the volleyball court falls to 0-1 by the way.
Seniors say goodbye
The soccer loss by the Lancers was the final match for seniors Ciara Collins, Maura Cyr, Audra Porowski, Grace D’Amato and Victoria Kosciukiewicz.
