The Dartmouth High girls’ volleyball team ended their regular season strong on Friday, Oct. 28 beating last year’s state champions, Old Rochester, 3-1 to finish the year with a 17-3 record.

The win against the Bulldogs follows a historic first-time-ever victory over Barnstable on Wednesday, sending the Indians into the postseason on a hot streak.

“We’ve never beaten [Barnstable] in the history of Dartmouth High School,” said Head Coach Rachel Lassey. “And we beat them in three [sets] — and, like, cleanly. It was amazing. Everything we’ve been working for just clicked on Wednesday.”

By contrast, Lassey said she saw room for improvement in Friday’s performance as the team dropped the second set and allowed Old Rochester to keep the scores close for much of the game.

“We came out booming for senior night on Wednesday and today we just came out a little slow,” she said. “We don’t have time to do that with any team we’re going to face — we can’t do that with Old Rochester, we can’t do that with any team in the tournament.”

Lassey added, though, that she felt the team’s early struggles could humble them and help them come back stronger in the playoffs.

“I think today was a great learning experience, to lose this set after beating one of the top teams in the state on Wednesday,” she said. “Losing that set was like a little smack back to reality — like, you might have hung with the big dogs but you can’t think you’re a big dog.”

Still, Lassey praised the team as “probably the most versatile” she’s ever had in a dozen years coaching the Indians.

“We can spread the ball around,” she said. “We utilized everybody. We’re utilizing our outside, our middles, our right side — everybody’s a go-to girl, which is something that we don’t always have.”

Lassey highlighted senior captain and setter Lauren Augusto specifically for her work setting up the team’s hitters. Augusto, she said, recently became the third Dartmouth student ever to eclipse 1,000 career assists for the team.

“To have Lauren setting them, that’s everything because she gets to every ball and she can really connect,” Lassey said. “She’s so athletic and she’s just graceful… She’s the heart and soul [of the team] and she’s given this everything she has. She’s going to leave everything on the court, she’s not going to leave here with any regrets.”

The team is slotted as the fourth seed heading into the tournament. After a first-round bye-week, Dartmouth will take on the winner of Whitman-Hanson Regional (29) vs. Grafton (36) at home. The time and date of the match are yet to be determined but will be scheduled for sometime between Nov. 3 and 5.