SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP — Goal setting is one thing every team does. History making is quite another subject.

The senior players on the Lakeside volleyball squad have some important goals, like repeating as Premier Athletic Conference champions and getting back to the Division I district finals. But they also have some secondary goals, like having a perfect season on their home court.

The Dragon seniors were determined to make some history in their opening match of the 2008 season, too. By beating Jefferson, 25-20, 25-10, 25-14, they achieved it, becoming the first group of Dragons to defeat the Falcons since Ashtabula and Harbor were brought together as Lakeside in 2001. The last Ashtabula Area City Schools team to defeat Jefferson was the 1996 Harbor team coached by Frank Roskovics. That team reached the Division II district championship match.

“Winning this match felt really good,” senior middle hitter Brittany Morrison, who had seven points and smacked eight aces on 12-of-12 spiking and also produced two ace blocks, said. “This is the first time Lakeside has beat Jefferson since Harbor and Ashtabula came together. We also know it might be one of the last times we play Jefferson.”

“We were kind of nervous coming into the match,” senior outside-hitter Tyler Pugliese, who had 12 points and nine ace spikes on a 17-of-18 night, plus two ace blocks and 21 aces on 39-of-41 setting, said. “We were trying to make some history. I thought we set the tone for our season tonight.”

There were other matters that motivated the Dragons in their opener.

“The girls wanted to come in and play strong tonight,” coach Lisa Newsome said. “We lost to Jefferson in our opener last year, and we didn’t want to repeat that.

“The girls also want to make sure they go undefeated on our home court this year. We wanted to make sure we got off to a good start tonight.”

Jefferson came into the match with some goals of its own. Trying to find out how well they worked together was part of the process for the Falcons.

“Considering we haven’t had the full team together for practice except for Friday and Monday, I thought we did all right,” Jefferson coach Sherri Britton said. “On top of that, we’re a very young team. Four of the girls were starting their first varsity match tonight and a couple of others are only in their second year.”

First-match jitters were a part of the process, too, although Lakeside was never in real jeopardy. The Dragons led as much as 15-8 in the first game, but the Falcons cut it back to 22-19 before Lakeside pushed through to take the game.

After that, the Dragons pretty much took charge the rest of the way. They were led by junior outside hitter Christiana Blakeslee with 16 points, nine aces on a 16-of-20 spiking night, two ace blocks, an ace dink and 22 aces on 35-of-38 setting. Junior Angela DeGeorge scored nine points, while senior outside hitter-defensive specialist Mallory Zappitelli added eight points and four aces on 9-of-12 spiking. Senior Erica Villa added seven points.

Jefferson was led by senior outside hitter Amber Hurst with eight points. Hailey Burns had seven points, while junior middle hitter Lizzy Ziemski had six points and five aces on 11-of-12 spiking, along with two ace blocks and two ace dinks. Junior Hannah Francis and senior Alex Willis also scored six points each.

Both coaches know there’s still room for improvement.

“We’ve got to be more aggressive serving and passing,” Britton said. “A lot of our problems are lack-of-confidence issues. We need better communication, too. We have a lot of things to address.”