Taconic Tops Pittsfield on Senior Night
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Midway through the first set of Monday’s Senior Night game against rival Pittsfield, the Taconic volleyball team found itself in a 14-8 hole.
Five minutes later, junior Fernanda DeSiqueira had turned things around for the Thunder.
After a side out off a Janayah Jones kill, DeSiqueira served eight straight points to give the home team a 17-15 lead.
And while the Generals did briefly go ahead at 21-19, the tide had turned, and Taconic was on its way to a 25-21, 25-14, 25-18 win for its fourth straight victory, a season sweep of the Generals and a 12-4 record.
“We started out, and our defense was a little out of position,” Taconic coach Lance Fyfe said. “Because it’s Senior Night, I was making sure to keep the four seniors on the court the whole time. That threw off the chemistry a little bit, because we usually don’t set up that way. And our defense was definitely trying to figure itself out.
“Once that got under control, we started to put out some offense thanks to Fernanda’s serving as well, and things kind of turned around for us.”
DeSiqueira had three of her five aces during the pivotal run.
The Generals (1-15) did not give up, and three points, including an ace, from Molly Kennedy-Mutz gave the visitors a 19-18 lead.
It was 21-19, Pittsfield when Angelese Ward-Green put down a kill to give Taconic a side out.
Senior libero Sophia Duclos then served five points in a row to end the set.
Duclos finished with five kills and a team-high eight digs in the win.
Fellow senior Jadyn Galliher had five kills, six digs and a pair of aces. And classmates Jones and Lacey Daly accounted for eight kills and eight aces, respectively.
For the Generals, Marley Perras had six kills, Kennedy-Mutz served four aces and Brenna Bellefontaine passed out 13 assists. Gionnah Levardi had a team-high four digs.
Although Pittsfield could not maintain the momentum on the scoreboard that it built in the first set, the Generals continued to show that they are not giving up on the season.
“I saw a lot of fight in my girls, still,” Pittsfield coach Katara Mullett said. “We’ve definitely overcome a lot this season. I was really proud of the way they came together tonight. Win or lose, they played some really good volleyball tonight.
“Definitely they have a collective want and, kind of, need to win. Most of my varsity team are seniors this year, so they all have that drive.”
Taconic rode the momentum of its first set win with a pair of early runs to take the lead in the second set and never looked back. Ella Stodden served three straight points to push the margin to 6-1. Later, Ward-Green had a kill in a three-point run on Lacy Daley’s serve to push the margin to 17-10. Duclos again closed out the set with three straight points.
Daly did the most damage in Set 3, serving 12 straight points to erase an early deficit and take a 16-8 lead on one of her eight aces.
Pittsfield got back to within three with a Perras kill at 21-18. But Galliher put down a kill to regain the serve for Taconic, and Daly served out the match with her second run of the set.
Taconic has two regular season matches left, starting at home on Wednesday against Ware. And the Thunder is looking to make some noise in the Western Massachusetts and state tournaments.
But Monday provided an opportunity to celebrate the contributions from its four seniors and, for Fyfe, to think about the future.
“Three of our best offensive players are all seniors,” he said. “That’s obviously going to make a lot of difference, not having them there, next year. There are some shoes to fill.
“I’ve got a great group of juniors. There are nine of them. So I’m not too worried. But we’re definitely going to miss these three, and Sophia [Duclos] stepped in as the libero tonight and did a great job as well. She was a little nervous at first, but she pulled through. And she was making some nice passes at the end and covering the court the way she should.”
Pittsfield is home on Wednesday against Lee before finishing the regular season on the road at Agawam on Friday.
Photos from this match to come.