The Bristol Central girls volleyball team will play in the Class L state semifinals for the third straight year on Wednesday night.
The No. 10 Rams (15-9) will take on No. 3 Woodstock Academy (21-4) at 6 p.m. at Rockville High School. Central would clinch its second state final appearance in the last three years with a win. The Central/Woodstock winner will play the winner of No. 1 Farmington and No. 4 East Lyme (Wednesday, 6 p.m., East Hampton High) on Saturday at East Haven High at a time to be determined.
To get to the semifinal round, Central had to overcome No. 2 RHAM-Hebron. The Rams won the first two sets by identical 25-23 scores, but the Raptors stormed back to take the next two sets in convincing fashion, 12-25 and 15-25. It came down to the decisive 15-point fifth set. In that fifth set, Central rolled, 15-5, to clinch its semifinal berth.
The Rams got some huge efforts across the board against the Raptors. Junior Lily Kirk tallied 18 kills, two blocks, nine digs and 28 serve-receives while senior Grace Higgins added 15 kills and three aces. Senior Lily Hinton had three aces, nine digs and 40 assists while fellow senior Daigelis Figueroa contributed three aces, 34 digs and 40 serve-receives. Junior Ella Pratt had seven kills and four blocks while senior Emily Fontaine added two blocks.
