The Darien High School girls’ volleyball team had a perfect 25-0 season and won FCIAC and Class LL state championships.
Those facts describe not just this year’s team, but also the 2022 Blue Wave.
Yes indeed, a 25-0 season with conference and state championships was achieved for the second straight year for coach Laurie LaRusso’s Blue Wave.
Darien won the 2023 FCIAC Girls Volleyball Tournament with a 3-1 victory over Trumbull by the scores of 25-15, 25-23, 24-26, and 25-23. That was the 24th FCIAC championship for Darien since the school’s first one in 1984. LaRusso has been Darien’s head coach for 24 of them.
So, for the second straight year the Blue Wave took a 21-0 record into the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Girls Volleyball Tournament.
Darien again won four straight matches in the state tournament and now has won 50 consecutive matches over the last two years after its 3-0 shutout victory over Southington by the scores of 25-18, 25-18, and 25-15 in the Class LL state championship match.
November 17, 2021. That is the date of the last time Darien lost a volleyball match, a 3-0 loss to eventual champion Greenwich in the semifinals 2021 Class LL state tourney.
Darien won all four matches by 3-0 shutout in this year’s state tournament.
The Blue Wave won 21 sets and lost just one set in this season’s seven postseason tournament matches.
Fairfield Warde shut out Staples, 3-0, Darien won by a 3-0 shutout over Ridgefield, Westhill beat St. Joseph, 3-1, and Trumbull defeated Greenwich, 3-1, in the quarterfinals of the FCIAC tournament.
Darien and Trumbull both registered 3-0 shutout victories in the semifinals – Darien over Westhill and Trumbull over Warde.
Darien’s senior setter Aubrey Moore was named the game’s MVP after racking up 40 assists and her twin sister, Ellie Moore, had 17 kills and 13 digs to lead the Blue Wave to that 3-1 victory over Trumbull in the FCIAC final.
And it was a true team effort as Marin Black was a major factor at the net with 10 kills and six blocks, Savannah Leone collected 15 digs, five kills and two blocks, Ayla Schenck also had 15 digs, and Brooke Leone contributed five kills and two blocks for the champions.
Whenever Darien had those six players on the court at the same time this year, it was a lineup that included two pairs of twin sisters. Aubrey Moore and Ellie Moore were both senior co-captains. Savannah Leone and Brooke Leone are in the junior class at Darien High School.
Several Trumbull Eagles played well in the FCIAC final to help them put forth a formidable challenge.
Ariana Gjonbalaj had 17 kills, four blocks and two aces, Claire Davis had 13 kills, Ava Kunkel had 16 digs and six kills, Carolyn Novia also had 16 digs, and Bailey Wright had 26 assists.
Trumbull’s Eagles ended the season with a very good 22-4 record as they won two matches in the Class LL state tourney before being eliminated by Darien in the semifinals.
Two weeks after she was selected the MVP of the FCIAC championship match, Aubrey Moore was named the Outstanding Player of the Class LL state championship match after accumulating 32 assists, three blocks, a kill and four digs in in that 3-0 victory over Southington on Nov. 18 at East Haven High School.
Ellie Moore had 14 kills and five digs, Brooke Leone had four kills and 11 digs, Savannah Leone had three kills and five digs, Black fired in 10 kills, Schenck had nine digs, and Katelyn Erdlen contributed six kills and a block for the Blue Wave.
Darien’s 3-0 semifinal victory over Trumbull was a rematch of 2022 Class LL state final which Darien won, 3-0.
It was the 19th state championship for the Blue Wave since snatching that first Class M crown in 1993. The first dozen state championships were in Class M from 1993-2006, there were three consecutive Class L state championships from 2007-09 which accounted for 15 state titles within the span of 17 years from 1993-2009, and these last four Class LL state championships occurred in 2012, 2014, and these last two years.
St. Joseph was the only FCIAC team in the CIAC Class L Girls Volleyball Tournament and the Cadets won four matches to advance to the final against Farmington. After Farmington won two of the first three sets, St. Joseph won the fourth set, 25-23, to set up the fifth and final set. Farmington’s River Hawks won the school’s ninth state title with a 3-2 victory by the scores of 25-23, 22-25, 25-18, 23-25 and 15-9.
Erin Lovett had 25 kills and three blocks, Maggie Wetmore had 51 assists and four kills, and Kelli Ennis fired in a dozen kills and four aces to lead St. Joseph’s Cadets, who finished 17-8.
In pretty much what was a no-brainer of a choice for the voting pollsters, all 25 coaches voted Darien’s 25-0 Blue Wave No. 1 in the 2023 Connecticut Volleyball Coaches Final Poll. That’s another thing Darien accomplished for the second straight year. But what was different was this year the choice was unanimous whereas last year the Blue Wave received 26 first-place votes from the 29 voting coaches.
There were five FCIAC teams in the final state poll’s top 11 as two of those teams, Fairfield Warde (20-4) and Greenwich (18-4), tied for 10th.
The first nine teams, in order, are: Darien (25-0), Southington (24-2), Class M state champion RHAM (23-4), No. 4 Trumbull (22-4), Farmington (22-4), Joel Barlow (23-2), Class S state champion Coventry (17-8), No. 8 St. Joseph (17-8), and Glastonbury (20-6).
The seven coaches from the FCIAC who voted on this year’s state poll included LaRusso, Trumbull’s Nicole Trommelin, Fairfield Ludlowe’s Tina Rembish, St. Joseph’s Jeff Babineau, Wilton’s Steve Brienza, Stamford’s Mike Smeriglio, and Jon Shepro of Staples.
With Aubrey Moore having previously been named MVP of the FCIAC final for the second straight year and Outstanding Player of the CIAC Class LL state final, it made appropriate sense that she was selected Player of the Year on the 12-player 2023 GameTimeCT All-State Girls Volleyball First Team.
Aubrey Moore racked up 666 assists this year and an amazing 2,108 career assists. She also had 176 kills and 510 digs in her career, including 155 digs this year.
Aubrey Moore and outside hitter Ellie Moore (646 career kills with a team-high 274 kills in 2023) of Darien, Trumbull’s senior middle hitter Ariana Gjonbalaj (565 career kills, a team-high 281 kills, and 51 blocks in ’23), Fairfield Warde’s senior hitter Selina Torstere (team highs of 413 kills and 73 blocks in ’23), and St. Joseph’s senior middle hitter Erin Lovett (team highs of 323 kills and 95 blocks this year) were the five players selected to the 2023 All-FCIAC Girls Volleyball First Team, their respective Connecticut High School Coaches Association all-state first team, and the GameTimeCT all-state first team. The Moore twins, Gjonbalah and Torstere were the four FCIAC players among the seven total on the CHSCA Class LL All-State First Team. Lovett made the CHSCA Class L All-State First Team.
The other three players on the eight-player All-FCIAC First Team were Greenwich’s Kassidy Bonney, Trumbull’s Claire Davis, and Westhill’s Finleigh Benkwitt.
The nine players selected to the All-FCIAC Second Team were Kirra Baker and Laila Henry of Fairfield Warde, Alina Sarkissian and Hayley Dionis of Greenwich, Lucie Nivaud of Staples, Darien’s Marin Black, Brien McMahon’s Caroline McClung, Westhill’s Define Ceken, and Trumbull’s Jasmine Johnson.
The eight players who made the All-FCIAC Third Team were Kelli Ennis and Nacelis Galarza of St. Joseph, Emma Guster of Staples, Brien McMahon’s Jasmine Stroud, New Canaan’s Alexandra Steinberg, Ridgefield’s Jamie Wilkenloh, Trumbull’s Ava Kunkel, and Wilton’s Marin Burke.