Earlier this year when asked about the Central Connecticut Conference girls volleyball tournament, RHAM coach Tim Guernsey was excited about having that kind of prepa­ration heading into the state tour­nament. (link)

Over the last two days, RHAM has taken care of business and finds itself playing for the tour­nament championship.

Top seeded RHAM ( 20- 0) stamped its place into tonight’s CCC title match with a workman­like 25-19, 25-19, 25-17 semi­final round victory over No. 3 Bristol Eastern (17-3).

The Sachems, who extended the state’s longest match winning streak to 49, took control after falling behind 9-4 in Game 1.

“ The last two matches, Farmington and Norwich Free Academy, we started out a little bit slow as well,” RHAM coach Tim Guernsey said. “ It’s one of those things with the seven seniors that we have that I try to let them figure out how to refocus themselves before I call a time out.

“Once we started to relax and just played things went pretty well.”

Junior Jocelyn Taylor (7 blocks, 7 kills) helped get things rolling for RHAM with three blocks and a kill as that 9-4 deficit quickly turned into a 15-11 lead as the 11-2 scoring run was punctuated by senior Tessa Smolinski, who landed a clean kill from the back row.

Taylor had four kills in Game 1 and finished things off by slam­ming home a passing error by the Lancers for a 25-19 victory.

RHAM took control in Game 2 after forcing a side-out trailing 16-15 on a point where Smolinski (8 kills) ran down a misplayed dig in the back corner of the gymnasium and later finished the multiple hit rally off with a kill.

That sparked things for the Sachems, who won six of the next seven points and 10 of the final 13 overall to make it a repeat of Game 1 with a 25-19 decision to take a 2-0 lead.

“We always talk about winning the long rallies,” Guernsey said. “There’s some statistic that says when the ball crosses the net four or five times the team that wins those rallies usually ends up win­ning the game. This time of year every point is important.”

RHAM led by as many as five points — 11-6 — in Game 3 before the Lancers got as close as 15-13 on a kill by Karissa Smith (14 kills).

The ability of the Sachems on serve/receive proved to be the difference maker as Ellie Linden (28 assists) closed things out with a pair of aces for the 2- time defending Class M state cham­pions.

Tonight, RHAM will square off against second- seeded Southington, which advanced Friday with a 3-0 semifinal vic­tory over No. 3 East Catholic, for the CCC tournament title at Manchester High School at 6 p.m.

The Lady Knights (19-1), who will be the No.1 seed in the Class LL tournament, ended Coventry’s 86-match winning streak on Oct. 28.

“ We’re looking forward to play­ing in the final,” Guernsey said. “It will be nice to have it on the road and get us out of our gym so that we’re used to the kind of atmosphere we’ll experience in the state tournament.”