Ledyard - Bill Howard was happy that his Norwich Free Academy girls' volleyball team was able to take a game from Ledyard on Monday.

The Colonels were pleased that NFA took the fight to them, too.

Jenny Nohara had 39 assists and four aces as unbeaten Ledyard won 25-15, 25-8, 21-25, 25-13 in an Eastern Connecticut Conference Large Division match.

The Colonels (3-0, 1-0) are the girls' volleyball force around these here parts. They're the defending ECC champions and return four starters. That includes senior Michelle Klinikowski (match-high 21 kills), who be plying her trade at Boston College next fall.

Ledyard won the first two games, the second in blowout fashion. So there was significance in the Wildcats getting over the beating quickly and rallying to win Game 3.

"What I take out of this match, as I just told them, I'm not really big on moral victories," Howard, the NFA coach, said. "That being said, when we came in here, I'm not sure we believed we could play with these guys. We kind of lost our composure a couple of times in those first two games, and they obviously didn't go the way we wanted them to go.

"Things started to go our way a little more in the third game. We started to play and we showed that we could play with these guys. (Ledyard) is a great volleyball team. This is the team that everybody in our league expects to win the league. I wanted to come in here today and show that we could compete, so I do take that (out of this)."

The Colonels only lost six games all of last regular season and two matches overall.

"I think it was good for our team," Klinikowski said of the third game. "You're not going to win every game and I think it's important to take what you can from losses and definitely use them. I think we came out (in Game 4) and said, 'we need to step it up' because we kind of stopped playing, and NFA stepped it up and played great in the third game.

"We took it as a learning experience. It was good. Definitely beneficial."

Senior Madison Canestrari was uber-efficient for Ledyard as she had 17 kills with just one hitting error. She also had three blocks.

Mackenzie Burke had 10 kills and 17 digs, Olivia Lane had nine kills and Sophie Swedin had 14 assists for the Wildcats (3-1, 0-1).

Ledyard senior Mariah Abstetar (six aces) got on a run at the service line early in Game 2 and totally threw the Wildcats' defense out of whack. The Colonels scored 13 straight to go ahead 18-5.

NFA trailed 11-8 in the third game when it rallied. Monique Fletcher had a kill to tie the match at 12.

Lane followed with a block on Klinikowski and added a kill to give the Wildcats a 14-12 edge.

The Colonels went ahead again 16-15, but made three straight errors and never after that.

Canestrari and Klinikowski got Ledyard back on track in Game 4 to close out the match.

"We can't make as many execution errors as we made," Howard said. "We had a ton of execution errors today and that's a combination of nerves a little bit and some younger people getting their first experience in a big match like this. The second time around, hopefully we won't make as many of those mistakes."

n.griffen@theday.com

Twitter: @MetalNED