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Owls start fast, gain momentum

With Conor Dube doing the serving, No. 2 seed Timberlane scored the first seven points of the match on its way to the sweep of Londonderry.
Junior Max LaRoche was the surprise big gun for the Owls with 11 kills and two blocks and Joe Morin chipped in with two kills and a block in a key five-point streak in the second game when Londonderry was threatening to tie up the match.
“Max was only JV last year, and we weren’t sure what to expect, but we stuck him in the middle and he’s been fantastic,” said Timberlane coach John Dube. “He’s been much better than we expected.”
Senior Terry Matatall finished with 10 kills but, like a couple of his teammates, wasn’t quite as effective as usual. That may have been a good thing, however, according to their coach.
And, said Matatall, “I feel we know what to expect having been in the finals last year. I’m confident we can beat them. We’ve gotten a lot better since the last time we played them.”
For Londonderry, which made several nice runs in the match, Matt Hersey had eight kills to lead the front line. The Lancers finished 12-6, which was a nice turnaround from 2008 (6-11).
“We played pretty well, but it was too hard to come back from that early deficit,” said Londonderry coach David Starin.