Baystate Advances Past Wahconah in Western Mass Semis
DALTON, Mass. – The most important set for the Baystate Academy volleyball team on Thursday night may have been the one set it did not win.
The third-seeded Bulls upset Wahconah, 3-1, to advance to Saturday’s championship game in the Western Massachusetts Class B tournament behind 16 kills from Shaneidy Hernandez.
Nathalya Felix had 15 kills and passed out eight assists for Baystate in its 25-18, 25-27, 25-19, 25-21 win.
One big turning point came in the second set when Baystate erased all of an 18-12 deficit and fought off five set points starting at 24-19 before finally succumbing.
“We got a good punch,” Baystate coach Hector Rivera said. “Wahconah’s a great team – 17-2, now 17-3. We knew it was going to be a hard fought game. And that was the wake-up call.
“It’s time to bring your ‘A’ game, because no one is going to give you anything for free. So they did it, and we came up with the victory.”
Baystate moves on to Saturday’s regional final against Frontier at Chicopee Comprehensive.
Wahconah (17-3) learns Monday when and against whom it will begin play in next week’s Division 4 State Tournament.
The teams started the night Thursday by trading long service runs in the first set. First,
First, Zaida Colon (12 kills, 26 digs) served six points for the Bulls to build an 11-3 lead. Then Eva Jacinto (14 kills, 10 digs) answered for Wahconah with a four-point run to get back within three on a kill by Olivia Mason (four kills, 10 digs) to make it 11-8.
Wahconah eventually tied the set at 16-16 on an ace by Sasha Fyfe (four aces, eight digs), but when the serve came back to Colon, she served three points to give Baystate a 21-17 lead.
Two sideouts later, the serve came to Daneisha Merced, who served out the set with three straight points, the last on a kill by Felix.
Wahconah led most of the second set, but after an ace by Fyfe got the hosts a set point at 24-19, Hernandez delivered a kill to give the Bulls a side out.
Jolanie Colon served five points to get the Bulls a set point of their own at 25-24. But Jacinto’s kill ended her run, and Taylor Mason served out the set to even the match, 1-1.
“I was happy with how we played,” Wahconah coach Dave Lussier said. “It was a game of peaks and valleys. The first set, we gave up quite a few points to begin with and came back and played really well. If we had played like that the entire set, I think we could have taken that.
“The second set, we had a rotational thing that took us out of sync for a little while. So a set we should have closed relatively quickly, we went into extra points in that one.”
Two late runs for the Bulls were the difference in the third set, which Wahconah led, 16-15, after an ace by Mason.
A Hernandez kill stopped Mason’s six-point service run, and Wahconah never led again. Zaida Colon won three points on her serve to get to 21-17, and Hernandez ended the set with a kill.
“We go as far as [our hitters] go,” Rivera said. “They have a good game, we look good. If they have a night off, we don’t look that good. Especially [Felix], the only senior on the team. The other two [Zaida Colon and Hernandez] are still going to be with us.
“That’s their game. They protect the net, and they hit outside really well.”
In the fourth set, Baystate pulled away late when Alexandra Cruz won five points on her serve to get the lead to 19-12.
A kill by Zaida Colon gave the Bulls match point at 24-16, but another kill from Wahconah’s Jacinto gave her team a side out.
And Wahconah erased four more match points on Taylor Mason’s serve before Baystate was able to close the deal.
Wahconah’s fight – both in surviving a late Baystate run in the second and staving off elimination in the fourth – was among the positives Lussier’s team can take from just its third loss of the season.
“All in all, I was happy with how we’re playing,” he said. “I think our serving was on tonight. They struggled with our serve. They got frustrated a lot. Good impressions all the way around.”