DALTON, Mass. – Megan O’Bryan put down 12 kills, and the Wahconah volleyball team got stronger as the night went on in a 3-0 win over Taconic in the quarter-finals of the Western Massachusetts Class B Tournament.
Olivia Carr-Cole had 10 digs, and Eve Colombari passed out 17 assists in the 25-22, 25-17, 25-13 win.
Wahconah (12-7) won its third straight match and advanced to Wednesday’s regional semi-final at Frontier.
But first, Wahconah coach Dave Lussier said, his team needed to push past the emotions from Friday’s five-set win over reigning state champion Mount Greylock.
“After having a very emotional match at the end of the week last week, it’s kind of hard to come right back in and focus and get the job done.
“We started a little slow at the beginning of the first set, but then we managed to settle down a bit and move along from there.”
Taconic led 4-2 early in that first set, but an O’Bryan kill gave Wahconah a sideout, and Emma Jacinto (three kills, two aces) served three points to give her squad a 6-4 lead.
The margin grew to six points on a Jacinto kill to make it 16-10, and it was still a six-point margin when Amelia Sturz served an ace to make it 23-17.
But Taconic fought back, regaining the serve and getting a Jadyn Galliher ace and Janayah Jones kill to close to within three at 23-20.
And after a sideout to Wahconah, Jones (six kills, 12 digs) put away another point to save a set point. Taconic held off another set point before one of the Thunder’s attacks went wide and Wahconah prevailed, 25-22.
“The only runs we were able to put in were runs that got us caught up,” Taconic coach Lance Fyfe said. “We really didn’t get any good leads. And that definitely hurts. It helps Wahconah’s momentum to get leads and hold onto them. It helps their confidence.”
By the same token, Fyfe said he felt his team lost confidence as the night went on.
“The first set was our strongest,” he said. “Second set, we did pretty well, but we started to stray away from our game plan a little bit. And then the third set it really got away from us, and we couldn’t pull out of it, really.”
Galliher finished with a team-high nine kills to go with nine digs and three aces. Ella Stodden passed out 16 assists.
Wahconah went up, 7-3, with a four-point run on Jacinto’s serve early in the second set. But the set was decided later on, when Colombari served five straight to open a 23-14 lead. A kill by O’Bryan gave Wahconah set point at 24-15, and after Galliher provided a kill and an ace to keep Taconic alive, the set ended at 25-17.
Wahconah never trailed in the third set, but it was still close midway through. A service error gave Wahconah a sideout at 14-11, and Taea Cunagin (nine digs, five kills, four aces) served the next six points for Wahconah, getting a tip at the net from Melaina Haczela to make it 20-11.
Cunagin’s service run featured the match’s longest rally, which saw both teams dig their way out of trouble before Jacinto ended the point.
“I think communication and energy was probably the best thing we did tonight,” Lussier said. “Also, not giving up on rallies. We brought a lot of things back into play that were assumed down. So being able to continue on and try to get back into system is what was most important.”
Taconic as this story went on the web Monday night was still waiting to hear who it will play in the tournament’s consolation game.
“I hope that the next team we play is just as strong as Wahconah,” Fyfe said when asked how the Western Mass tournament will prepare Taconic for next week’s state tournament. “We play a lot of weaker teams in our conference, which doesn’t help us out a whole lot. We are able to compete with teams like this, but we made a lot of mistakes.”
