Guilford — Two constants about the Waterford volleyball team this season, through its much good and little bad — the Lancers can pound the ball when they pass is right, and they have more than enough hitters to do it.

Waterford repeatedly smashed those truths into Woodland’s head quickly and often in Wednesday’s CIAC Class M semifinal.

Vanessa Kobyluck had 34 assists and Mickalya Shelburn, playing with a broken thumb on her hitting hand, added 10 kills as the fourth-seeded Lancers tore through the top-seeded Hawks in a little more than an hour, 26-24, 25-13, 25-15, at Guilford High School.

“We saw their weaknesses,” Kobyluck said. “We saw they were getting down on themselves, so we just used that to our advantage. We got what we wanted.”

Waterford (21-5) advances to its first state final after losing in the semifinals the previous two seasons. It will play No. 7 Ellington in the title match on Saturday at Berlin High (1 p.m.) The Knights took down No. 6 East Haven in four games.

The Lancers will try to join East Lyme, Ledyard and Norwich Free Academy as the only Eastern Connecticut Conference teams to win a state title. They’ll be joined Saturday by league-mate Lyman Memorial, which took out top-seeded Seymour in the Class S semifinals.

“I’m so happy to hear that,” Waterford head coach Beau Lucas said after pumping his first. “Saturday is going to be beautiful. That’s great.”

Middle hitter Haley Taylor had six kills and three blocks and Leah Terrell had seven kills for the Lancers. Jillian Sykora added 23 digs and three aces.

Woodland, the Naugatuck Valley League champion, finished 21-3.

Waterford opted to run quicks to middle hitters Opal Willox and Taylor. A quick is a hit after the middle hitter leaps before the ball is passed to them, with the setter passing the ball to the hitter’s hand.

A high school team can disrupt a defense with the quick. Waterford certainly did.

“(They’re) the first team (we played) that actually runs quicks and they were playing a different style than we’ve seen all year long,” Woodland coach Jim Amato said. “We were a little slow on the uptake on that. … They ran it really smooth, too. (Kobyluck) had a good touch on the ball, and it was run fast.”

Lucas said, “It keeps the other team’s defense honest. … It really opens things up.”

Waterford sensed early that they had the hitting advantage as the Hawks too often settled for passing the ball back over the net rather than attacking it.

“(We noticed it in) the first game, and it was really just us settling in and realizing what we needed to utilize in our offensive arsenal to put them on their heels,” Lucas said. “Right about 15-15 in the first game, we started really understanding it.”

Shelburn said, “I think we had more confidence and we were working together. We were getting frustrated with each other, and that helped up a lot. We were keeping each other up.”

Woodland came unglued in Game 2 as it struggled to return serve and made error after error. Waterford took a quick 12-3 lead. It led 14-7 when Sykora served three aces. That, a Taylor kill off a quick, and a Hawks error pushed the Lancers’ edge to 19-7.

The Lancers led 16-14 in the third game when Sykora’s serve frustrated Woodland again. It made three errors, and Taylor added two kills as Waterford went ahead 22-14.

Taylor hit a kill for match-point. Another Hawks error ended it.

n.griffen@theday.com

@MetalNED