It was a fantastic double crown year for Greenwich which highlighted the girls’ volleyball season in the FCIAC.
Led by three juniors who were among the best players in the state – outside hitters Kayah Armstrong and Heidi Zieme and setter Victoria Sullivan – Greenwich won FCIAC and state championships in the same season for the second time in the last five seasons to match the feat accomplished by the 2021 Greenwich Cardinals.
After Greenwich seized the No. 1 seed in the 2025 FCIAC Girls Volleyball Tournament with a 14-1 conference record during the regular season, fourth-year coach Marianna Linnehan’s Cardinals won the program’s fourth overall conference championship with a 3-1 victory over second-seeded Fairfield Ludlowe at Stamford High School’s Paul Kuczo Gymnasium on Oct. 29.
Seventeen days later the Cardinals ended their season with a 25-1 record when they won the 2025 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Girls Volleyball Class LL Tournament championship match with a 3-1 victory over Glastonbury at East Haven High School on Nov. 15.
Greenwich won its first 17 matches of the season before the host Fairfield Warde Mustangs ended that winning streak with a 3-1 victory on Oct. 20. Then the Cardinals won their final match of the regular season, three more in the FCIAC tournament and their final four matches in the state tournament.
Greenwich and Fairfield Ludlowe both finished the regular season with 14-1 conference records. The Cardinals earned the No. 1 seed in the FCIAC tournament via the tiebreaker of their 3-0 victory early in the season at Fairfield Ludlowe on Sept. 16.
After they advanced to the FCIAC championship match, Greenwich’s utilized the strong all-around performances from that trio of Armstrong, Zieme and Sullivan in their 3-1 victory by the scores of 25-19, 14-25, 25-22, 25-15.
Armstrong had 18 kills and eight digs, Zieme had 17 kills and 20 digs, Sullivan racked up 30 assists and 14 digs, and all three of them each had three blocks and one ace.
Greenwich also got key contributions from sophomore libero Bailee Dayon (29 digs and two aces) and Essa Walsh (seven digs and five aces).
Coach Tina Rembish had several of her Fairfield Ludlowe players perform well as the Falcons made things interesting when they won the second set by a 25-14 margin to tie the match up at 1-1 before Greenwich won the last two sets.
Becca Karlsen had 10 kills and seven blocks while Kendall McAleer had 10 kills and three blocks to lead Fairfield Ludlowe.
Also for the Falcons: Finley Havens had nine kills, Sidney Ogilvie had 30 assists and one ace, Sofia Cilano had eight digs and a pair of aces, and Cami Zane had five kills and an ace.
After Greenwich and Fairfield Ludlowe got the top two seeds in the FCIAC tourney with their 14-1 conference records, New Canaan and Fairfield Warde tied for second place with their identical 13-2 records. New Canaan’s 3-2 victory at home over Warde on Sept. 25 earned the Rams the No. 3 seed.
Trumbull (11-4) was seeded fifth in the FCIAC tourney and followed by Staples (10-5), seventh-seeded Westhill (8-7) and Ridgefield (8-7).
In the opening quarterfinal round of the conference tournament: Greenwich shut out Ridgefield, 3-0, Fairfield Ludlowe defeated Westhill and New Canaan beat Staples by the same scores of 3-1, while Trumbull’s Eagles won the fifth set against Fairfield Warde by a 15-11 margin in their 3-2 victory by the scores of 25-22, 25-18, 23-25, 20-25, 15-11.
Greenwich and Fairfield Ludlowe advanced to the championship with 3-1 semifinal victories.
Trumbull won the opening set by two points before Greenwich won the match by the scores of 23-25, 25-21, 25-14, 25-23.
After New Canaan won the second set to tie the match up at 1-1, Ludlowe pulled away to win by the scores of 25-17, 13-25, 25-19, 25-22.
The two postseason tournaments displayed how dominant Greenwich’s junior outside hitters Armstrong and Zieme are at the net.
Armstrong was named the Most Valuable Player of FCIAC tournament and then Zieme was named MVP of the CIAC Class LL state tournament final after she fired in 20 kills and had 15 digs to help lead the Cardinals to their 3-1 victory over Glastonbury by the scores of 24-26, 25-20, 25-9, 25-20.
Out of Greenwich’s combined total of 99 points in that Class LL final, 44 of them were set up on assists from Sullivan. Greenwich senior Aleena Jacobson ended her career in fine fashion by contributing a dozen kills and 15 digs, and Dayon had 30 digs.
Greenwich avenged its only loss of the season in the semifinals of the Class LL state tourney as Armstrong had 16 kills and three blocks to lead the Cardinals to their 3-0 victory (25-23, 25-18, 25-21) over Fairfield Warde.
Coach Matt Narwold’s Fairfield Warde Mustangs avenged a loss in the regular season to crosstown rival Fairfield Ludlowe with their 3-1 victory (25-19, 25-19, 18-25, 25-22) over Ludlowe in the Class LL tourney quarterfinals.
Trumbull came into the Class LL tournament as the No. 10 seed and the Eagles gave Greenwich quite a challenge before the second-seeded Cardinals outscored Trumbull 15-12 in the fifth set to advance to the Class LL semifinals with a 3-2 victory (17-25, 25-22, 24-26, 25-23, 15-12).
There were nine FCIAC teams in the Class LL state tournament and the conference had a combined 11-8 record. Six of those losses came against fellow conference teams, so the FCIAC had a combined 5-2 record in matchups against opponents not in the conference.
Armstrong, Zieme and Fairfield Warde’s superb junior setter Laila Henry were the three FCIAC players who were recipients of the highest levels of postseason all-conference and all-state honors possible.
They were selected to the 2025 All-FCIAC Girls Volleyball First Team, the Connecticut Girls Volleyball Association Class LL All-State Team and the GametimeCT All-State First Team which consisted of nine seniors and those three juniors from the FCIAC in Henry, Armstrong and Zieme.
Henry, who has racked up an amazing 2,138 career assists, was a repeat selection on all three of those teams after having made the 2023 All-FCIAC Second Team as a freshman.
Armstrong and Zieme combined for 550 kills this past season. Armstrong had 300 kills, 169 service points and 40 blocked shots while Zieme had 250 kills, 159 digs and 122 service points.
Karlsen, Fairfield Ludlowe’s sophomore middle blocker, and Trumbull’s junior middle hitter McKenzyi Bell both made the All-FCIAC First Team, CGVCA Class LL All-State Team and GametimeCT All-State Second Team.
New Canaan’s senior libero/outside hitter Mia Lockyer also earned three postseason awards in being selected to the All-FCIAC First Team, CGVCA Class LL All-State Team and GametimeCT All-State Honorable Mention.
Fairfield Warde’s senior middle hitter Ivy Ann Feay was picked to the All-FCIAC First Team and GametimeCT All-State Second Team.
Westhill’s Angela Russell was among the eight players selected to the All-FCIAC First Team and the senior libero was also GametimeCT Honorable Mention.
Greenwich’s junior setter Victoria Sullivan made the GametimeCT All-State Second Team and was one of the nine players picked to the All-FCIAC Girls Volleyball Second Team.
The other eight players selected to the All-FCIAC Second Team were Brooke Shaughnessy and Sienna Wearsch of Staples, New Canaan’s Anna Vertin, Fairfield Ludlowe’s Finley Havens, Trumbull’s Adriana Castillo, Ridgefield’s Brenna Williams, Westhill’s Ava Homicki, and Darien’s Audrey Brooke.
The eight players who made the All-FCIAC Girls Volleyball Third Team were Anna Tremaglio and Maddie Weisberg of Fairfield Warde, New Canaan’s Julia Olesnevich, Greenwich’s Bailee Dayon, Trumbull’s Callie McGillicuddy, St. Joseph’s Sarah Lovett, Stamford’s Gyllian Rybnick, and Ridgefield’s Maddie Ferrara.