Montville — Back when Rita Sefransky and Fiona Taber were just the little sisters of Fitch High School volleyball players, on game days they would swipe a ball from the main gymnasium, go out into the hallway and start a game among themselves.

More than likely the person charged with chasing down the 8-year-olds to get the ball back was then-Fitch assistant coach Elena Lockett, for 15 seasons the sidekick to longtime head coach Steve Banks.

"I got to see them all kind of come up through the program," Lockett said.

Lockett calls that history, something she's now presiding over as the Fitch head coach. Banks, who coached for 27 years, 25 as head coach, retired following the COVID-shortened 2020 season during which the Falcons played just six games.

So far, Lockett is off to a 4-0 start following Monday night's 25-18, 25-8, 25-17 victory over Montville.

"We were super excited. That's who we knew needed to get the job," said Taber, a senior who followed her sister Caroline into the Fitch program. "Coach Lockett is definitely a winner. Throughout the years, watching her on JV and with our siblings, she's just always been fantastic, just the winning mentality throughout every game, every practice."

"I would say no, not too much," Sefransky said of whether there were too many differences between Banks and his successor. "We all went through her as a JV coach. We all know how she is as a coach, I think. Speaking for me and the rest of the team, we were all really excited when we found out she was the head coach. We kind of jumped just right into practice; right away, the first day we got into our positions and everything."

Against Montville, which was the Falcons' fourth match in six days, Sefransky had 15 assists, Annalyn Cahill 10 kills and libero Madi Aldinger 13 digs. Taber had seven aces and spurred the Fitch victory in the first game with her service game, accounting for nine straight points.

Fitch trailed 7-6 when Lockett called the first timeout of the day, right before Taber's decisive run.

"What I reminded them in the timeout is that we're a power team. We don't like the tipping. We like to show them that we're strong," Lockett said. "I could see the game going that way. We had a lot of chances to show them our powerful side and we didn't take it. I said, 'You've got to let them know we have power here.'"

Said Lockett, asked of her players' description of her as a winner: "I like to win. I love the sport, I respect the sport, but if we're coming out, if we're driving over here, we want to win."

Lockett is a 1990 Fitch graduate, a setter for former coach Mark Sullivan, who coached Fitch's first team beginning in 1979. She learned the game from Sullivan and considers him her mentor — "he left a long impression on that program and with me," Lockett said.

A math teacher at Groton Middle School, Lockett began coaching at Fitch in 2008 when her daughter Jackie, also a setter, was a freshman. As Banks' assistant she has molded a generation of setters, including Sefransky and her older sister Mae.

Lockett said she knew when Banks announced his retirement that she wanted to continue coaching.

"It's been seamless for me and the girls just because we had such a history together," Lockett said. "I coached most of them before. It's going well.

"So many traditions at Fitch, singing on the bus ... luckily I was privy to all that. They've kept with all that. Steve stopped by practice the other day; the girls were happy to see him. So far, so good, with respect for Steve's program but with a new focus and some shifting in the rotation. These girls are knowledgeable volleyball players and they're athletes."

Zoie Farrar had four kills and two digs for Montville (3-2).

Fitch will continue its frenetic start to the season at home Tuesday against Waterford (2-3).

"Last year with the COVID year and everything, everyone was just coming back to school for the first time; it was just slower," Sefransky said. "(This year), we had three weeks of practice before our first game. We got to build a lot of trust wihin each other. I feel like I can trust my team, that they know what they need to do."

v.fulkerson@theday.com 

Fitch Montville volleyball gallery refer

For more photos from the Fitch Montville volleyball match click here.