Waterford — Amanda Nappi, head coach of the Lyman Memorial volleyball team, was discussing the Bulldogs' approach to serving when several of her players walked by after Saturday's match against Waterford.

“Hey guys,” Nappi said. “What does a good serve look like? Three things.”

“Float, low, to a seam,” the players replied.

Lyman did those three things quite well as it stormed past the Lancers 25-9, 25-21, 25-11 in a matchup of unbeaten Eastern Connecticut Conference teams.

The defending CIAC Class S champion Bulldogs (7-0) had 14 aces along with dozens of other serves that short-circuited Waterford’s serve-receive and ability to set up its offense.

“Our coach always preaches (serve it) low, over the net below the antenna,” Lyman senior Helen Megson said. “That’s our goal every single time. … We stay aggressive and take the other team out of their system. It’s one of our biggest keys.”

The Bulldogs are even willing to risk giving up points on serves that might be too low and go into the net.

“Absolutely,” Nappi said. “It gives the opponents a little less time to track the ball; a little less time to react. It’s certainly something that we emphasize in practice.”

Lyman junior Fallon Bailey gave the Lancers’ serve-receive the most fits. She had seven aces in addition to 10 kills and five digs.

“I have to think it was her best game all season,” Nappi said. “She swung well on in-system balls. She swung well on out-of-system balls. Her serve set the tone amazingly in both the first and third set.”

Sophomore Kassidy LaTour had 28 assists, five digs and three aces, senior Anna Mathewson had 17 digs, and Megson had 10 kills, eight digs and an ace for the Bulldogs. Junior Callie Nanos added seven digs and five kills.

Waterford (3-1) hadn’t played a match since Oct. 13 due to COVID-19 related postponements or cancellations.

“There was really no excuse for coming out as flat as we did,” Lancers head coach Matt Maynard said. “Give Lyman credit. They have really good servers. They have a really great outside hitting game. We knew exactly what was coming and we just didn’t execute very well today.”

Senior Angela Colonis had 13 assists and nine digs, classmate Emily Mitchell had seven digs, and junior Kate Lange had 10 digs and six kills for Waterford.

“It’s not the result I expected, and we really have to step up as a group,” Maynard said. “We have a lot of seniors, but not everyone has a lot of varsity experience from last year and that run that we had (to the ECC Division I tournament title and the Class M final).

“A lot of times its new ground that we’re going over. We need to be confident in ourselves.”

Bailey set the tone from the jump as she served three aces that helped Lyman go ahead 5-0 in Game 1. It led by as much as 17-5.

Waterford straightened itself out in the second game and led, 13-12, before the Bulldogs took charge, eventually winning on game point on a Lancers’ serve-receive error.

Bailey disrupted Waterford again to start the final game as Lyman took a 4-0 lead.

LaTour served three aces during a five-point run that pushed the Bulldogs ahead, 23-9.

Bailey served match point and dropped the ball in close to the net on the Lancers' side. It forced them to scramble for the ball and settle for just getting the ball over the net rather than setting up for a kill. It also allowed LaTour to set Megson for the match-winning kill.

“Fallon did tremendous today,” Megson said. “She’s very good about finding open spots on the court, and if she gets a good set, she can really hammer it.”

n.griffen@theday.com