The ball made a loud pop as Caleb Barry spiked it to the floor. There was still a whole set left to be played, but the sound represented what the Lions were trying to burst through after years of coming up short.
In each of the last three years, Lockport’s postseason run halted in the Section VI Division I semifinals. Two of those losses came against Lancaster, in 2021 and 2022.
But after an 18-1 start, the top-seeded Lions were back in the same round and against the No. 5 Legends once again Thursday. Through four sets, Lockport countered what Lancaster brought with quick ball movement around the net.
Barry’s final kill helped the Lions win in four sets for a 21-25, 26-24, 25-19, 25-21 finish in Liz Smorol’s final home game after 10 years as Lockport’s coach.
Lockport will face either No. 2 Frontier or No. 6 Kenmore for the section’s Division I championship at 7 p.m. Nov. 14 at Kenmore West.
“It means a lot,” Lockport head coach Liz Smorol said. “It’s my last home game. The seniors, it’s the last time they’re going to play in this gym. So, it just meant a lot. … We just had to keep remiding them, it’s just another game. You just have to settle down and let’s just get back in it.”
But against the Legends, Lockport watched its five-point lead of 15-10 before only managing six points the rest of the first set. But, the Lions made adjustments the rest of the match by moving the ball around the court.
The second set resulted in Lockport working the ball in the middle, finding the split in the front row, where Barry and Ehren Pettipiece tallied points. In the third set, Lockport expanded by working to the outside, with Barry, Pettipiece and Lucas Pynn working together to create plays just inside the out-of-bounds line.
To secure the win, the Lions went back to attacking the middle, with Barry recording two of the last three points on kills.
“We definitely were talking to each other, giving each other everything, every hole we see,” Barry said. “We made sure when we came together, we were encouraging each other, because there were some times we fell behind and we were discouraged. But the second we regained our focus, we took the lead again.”
Lancaster finished the season 8-10.