By Michael Letendre
This past Monday, the Bristol Central girls volleyball team — after absorbing a tough 3-2 loss to crosstown rival Bristol Eastern earlier in the season — was laser focused against the Lancers in the rematch.
And, behind some stellar play by Central’s Lily Kirk, the program was able to zip up a tremendous 3-0 victory over Eastern behind set scores of 25-18, 25-13 and 25-13 from the court at BEHS.
And it was redemption of sorts for the tremendous sophomore competitor.
“Yeah, it is” redemption said Kirk after beating Central. “For sure, it’s like revenge.”
Kirk, who left the first match early with a back injury, saw the Rams lose all of its momentum in a 2-0 match lead, falling to the Kingstreeters in the end from the Charles C. Marsh Gymnasium (23-25, 21-25, 25-21, 25-18 and 15-12) but the competitor was still on the bench, cheering on her teammates.
But in the rematch, Kirk was laser-focused from the onset, posting 14 kills, two aces from the service line and bumped up 10 digs over one of the most dominant performances by Central ever from the court of the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium at BEHS.
“It just felt really good. As a team, we were a unit and we stayed a unit the entire time,” said Kirk. “We have a philosophy where it’s like we’re like a car and we’re running [the opponent] over. And you never let up. You have to keep pushing no matter what. Whether we’re down or we’re up, it’s a constant push against them.”
Rough first game against BE
Even before the injury against Eastern, Kirk was not feeling well and had to visit the garbage can behind the bench a couple times over the first couple sets but still made huge plays when she was in the match.
And the reason for her illness has finally been revealed.
Rumor has it that Kirk got sick from a trip with her uncle, Jason Stafford, to his favorite restaurant ‘Almost Steak’ and bought her the ‘All you would never, ever, ever, eat combo’ ($4.95 for lunch, plus tax).
That lunch time jaunt possibly got her sick but, in all seriousness, Kirk faced all the elements that night, watched her squad fall from the bench and turned around in the rematch against Eastern and simply exploded.
“As a freshman, I used to get really nervous playing big teams like this, especially Eastern,” said Kirk. “But now, it just kind of feels I’ve sunken into it and it feels like the adrenaline pushes me forward to that win.”
Kirk was deadly from the left side versus the Lancers, tying for the lead in kills, and has positioned herself as one of the best frontline players in the city — all in just her second year of scholastic play.
“She’s shown a ton of growth throughout the course of the season as far as kind of playing outside of herself,” said Central coach Lance Pepper. “And now she’s playing within herself which is what we need.”
Over 42 sets, the rest missed due to a couple injuries, Kirk nabbed 152 kills this season along with 26 aces, and 111 digs.
Kirk leads the Rams in kills-per-set (3.6), hitting percentage, and is tied for the lead in aces-per-set along with Leah Sklenka.
When she’s on the court and swinging from the outside, Kirk is simply tough to top and expect more of the same in the 2023 postseason and over the years at BCHS.
Winning on the big stage
Beating Eastern was a big deal as state tournament seeding was on the line as well that Monday evening.
The Rams finished the season at 13-7 overall, won a back-to-back CCC South championships for the first time in school history, swept Eastern on its own home court and will be ranked eighth in the upcoming Class L tournament as one of the featured teams in the bracket.
Sleeping on Kirk and the Central volleyball team didn’t work last season and that statement is especially true this time around.
“This was really big for us especially because going into our season, we didn’t really know what was going to happen,” said Kirk of defeating Eastern. “And after this past week, how we’ve been playing and today, we’re looking forward to the tournaments.”
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