Milford's Piper Greenhalgh, left, and Shilo Chappell are stunned after Oyster River got the clinching point in Thurday's Division II semifinals Thurday at Pinkerton's Hackler Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

DERRY – It’s always a tough thing when a season ends before you expect it to.

That’s what the Milford High School girls volleyball team experienced on Thursday night at Pinkerton’s Hackler Gym. No, top seed, unbeaten Oyster River’s 3-1 win over the No. 4 Spartans wasn’t an upset, but the way the match started, it looked like this would be Milford’s night.

Milford jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the opening set which they took 25-19. But the Bobcats won the next three by 25-20, 25-23, 25-16 to advance to Saturday’s 10 a.m.final at the Hack vs. No. 3 Somersworth, also a 3-1 winner over No. 7 Kingswood.

“Milford always has something to prove, and just because we lost today doesn’t mean that we didn’t prove anything,” Spartans co-coach Gabby Monico, a former Spartan standout herself, said. “I said it early on, it was definitely a game of mistakes; it was whichever team was going to make the less mistakes that one. And at the end when it mattered, we continued to make the mistakes and Oyster River seemed to figure it out and get in that rhythm.”

Milford (16-3) was paced by its back line and its numerous digs, paced by libero Piper Greenhalgh and Kassie Cupin, plus the play around the net and also in the middle by Harper Anderson, among others.

The Bobcats recovered to be in control in the second set for the five-point win, but the key was the third set, as the Spartans had a 23-21 lead before Oyster River won four straight points to lead 2-1. A serve out of bounds, a block by Bobcat Elsa Svenson, a nudge over the net by Maggie Dewire and a kill by Claire Jorgenson for the clincher was tough for Milford to bounce back from. Outside hitter Leah Lynskey also played well for the Bobcats.

“The girls want it, there’s a drive there,” Oyster River coach Cassandra Doore said. “We’ve come from behind before, this team took us to five (sets) earlier in the season, we knew they’d come ready to play.

“We made a lot of unforced errors, even past the first set – second set, third set, fourth set, there were a lot of unforced errors. Not very characteristic of us. I’ll hand it to Milford – they got us to make those errors in a lot of cases. The girls just fought. … We struggled with our connections.”

One of the reason for that was the fact that the Bobcats best setter, senior Gracy Spirito, was just returning from an injury, this being her first time even on a court in five weeks. In the final set, things were knotted at 11, and with the score 15-14 OR, the Bobcats went on a 6-0 run with net rhythm from setter to hitter that they hadn’t had. It simply clicked at the right time.

Milford’s Harper Anderson gets a dig as Poper Greenhalgh (4) looks on during Thursday night’s Division II semifinal vs. Oyster River at Pinkerton Academy. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The Spartans lose eight seniors, many part o the nucleus of two Final Four teams, so there will be an adjustment for next year.

“The one thing that Pedro (co-coach Campos) and I will continue to remind them of is that they should be incredibly proud of what they put into this, “Monico said, “and the outcome and fact we made it as far as we did.”

Milford’s Savannah Watson goes high for a kill during Thursday night’s Division II semifinal vs. Oyster River in Derry. (Courtesy photo by Betsy Hansen)