TORRINGTON – The Torrington High School Lady Blazers successfully defended their home court during the Homecoming Week match against 3A rival Newcastle on Friday, October 11 with a clean sweep, 3-0.

Torrington boarded the bus for a match against 3A opponent Buffalo on Saturday. Both teams brought their A-games in a point-for-point, five-set battle. The Lady Bison ultimately won the fifth set by a handful of points to post a 3-2 overall win.

Newcastle

The set tied early at four following a pair of kills by sophomore Zoe Wilson. Newcastle went on a five-point run to pull ahead, 9-4.

The Lady Dogies remained in the lead until the Lady Blazers battled back to tie the set at 16. Juniors Brooklyn Asmus, Natalie Long and Trishell Pontarolo each defended the net with a block. Long, Asmus and senior Olive Osmera powered over a kill apiece and Asmus aced a serve.

A pair of kills by Pontarolo placed Torrington within one point of overtaking the Lady Dogies, 16-15. Long served up an ace and the set reached a 16-16 stalemate.

The set deadlocked again at 20 and 21 with kills by Wilson and senior Teryn Stokes. 

Torrington took control of the scoreboard at 22 and went on to score game point, 25-22, anchored by three kills from Wilson.

The Lady Blazers dominated the second set and remained in the lead from the opening point – a killby Osmera – to game point – a kill from senior Jaycee Hurley. Osmera tallied five kills in the second set and aced three serves. Stokes, Wilson, Asmus and Pontarolo also contributed kills while Stokes aced a serve. Pontarolo, Long and Wilson each reached up for blocks.

The lead switched hands several times in a close third set. Torrington took the lead, 6-3, with kills by Osmera and Wilson. Hurley aced a serve and the Lady Blazers remained up, 9-6.

Newcastle tied the set at 9 before pulling ahead, 10-9. 

Asmus responded with a kill and Torrington matched Newcastle in scoring, 10-10.

A kill by Osmera pulled the Lady Blazers up, 11-10.

Newcastle scored a point and the set deadlocked, 11-11. A kill by Long returned the initiative to Torrington, 12-11.

Torrington maintained the lead with kills by Pontarolo, Osmera, Stokes and Wilson before the set reached another stalemate at 16.

Torrington regained the lead, 18-17, with two kills by Wilson. Asmus powered over three kills, widening the Lady Blazers’ advantage, 24-19. 

An ace by Asmus resulted in game point, 25-19.

Wilson set the pace for the Torrington offense against Newcastle with 13 kills. Osmera contributed 11 kills, Asmus nine, Pontarolo and Stokes four apiece, Long two and Hurley one.

Osmera aced four serves while Asmus, Hurley, Long and Stokes each served one ace.

Defensively, Pontarolo led with four blocks. Long defended the net with three blocks, Asmus and Wilson tallied two blocks with one from Stokes.

Hurley covered the floor as libero with 24 digs and Long delivered 23 assists as setter.

Buffalo

The neck-and-neck battle between Torrington and Buffalo opened with a 25-18 win by the Lady Bison in the first set.

The Lady Blazers battled back to defeat Buffalo in the second set, 25-19. 

The third set came down to the wire and went beyond 25 with Buffalo pulling out the win, 26-24.

Torrington fired back to win the fourth set, 25-22.

Buffalo won the winner-takes-all fifth set by four points, 15-11.

Three Lady Blazers tallied double-digit kills against Buffalo, including 16 kills by Wilson, 14 from Asmus and 13 by Osmera.

Long led Torrington from the service line with four aces.

Asmus tallied 20 digs with Hurley contributing 19. Long posted 31 assists over five sets.