Wildcats Sweep Mounties in Western Mass Final
WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- The longest rally of Saturday morning’s Western Mass title match between Lee and Mount Greylock was a turning point in the second set and turned on a decision by Wildcats senior Lizzy Brown.
Class D top seed Lee was up a set and tied, 13-13, in the second. Brown had already taken a couple of strong swings at the net during the rally, but the second-seeded Mounties were able to either block or dig the ball to stay alive for a chance at their first lead since 2-1 in the first set.
But Brown put away the point with a tip that found a hole in the Mount Greylock defense and gave Lee a lead it never relinquished en route to a 25-17, 25-20, 25-21 win.
“It’s really important after we take a couple of swings to kind of throw them off and kind of pull everything out from underneath them -- switch it up so they have to keep on guessing what we’re going to do on the next swing,” Brown said. “It’s just the unexpected.”
There was nothing unexpected about seeing the Berkshire County rivals in the regional final.
Lee lost just one match all fall -- way back on Sept. 10 against Frontier, a defeat the Wildcats later avenged. Mount Greylock lost just twice this season: a five-setter against Class B Monument Mountain with the Mounties’ top hitter on the sideline and a three-set decision to Lee.
Saturday’s match was the first Western Mass title contest this weekend under the auspices of the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which this academic year absorbed the old Berkshire County League in most sports and created an eight-team regional tournament format to make up for the loss the old Western Mass sectionals with the advent of statewide tournament play.
“It’s a blessing and curse playing against a team you’ve played before,” Lee coach Julia Warner said. “The great thing is that you know what they’re all about. The not-so-great thing is they know what you’re all about.
“It’s also funny to have two Berkshire teams coming out to West Springfield. There’s a little bit of a rivalry in the Berkshire sense because even though we’re all one big giant District 1 [in the MIAA], there’s some history and Berkshire County pride.”
Brown and Kylie Joyce each finished with a double double for Lee.
Brown had a team-high 17 kills to go with 10 digs and three aces. Joyce delivered 10 kills, 13 digs and a pair of aces. Makayla Schuerer distributed 29 assists and had eight digs and three aces, and Rachel Wendling pulled up 18 digs.
Celina Savage led Mount Greylock with 12 kills and five blocks. Takiera Darrow had six kills for the Mounties.
The Wildcats knew going into the match that they had to limit the damage from that duo, and, for the most part, they kept Mount Greylock from getting into its offense most of the game.
“We passed well off of their serve, and we tried to, from serve receive, keep them out of system because we did want to keep it away from some of their bigger hitters,” Warner said. “That was part of the game plan coming in. That and us keeping it on our side -- keeping the energy, keeping the momentum on us.”
In the first set, Mount Greylock did not win a point on its serve until it was already down 19-10.
Meanwhile, Lee took control of the first set with a five-point run on Brown’s serve that ended with a kill by Darrow for a side out at 10-4.
Lee’s lead was 21-13 before Mount Greylock won a couple of points on Talia Kapiloff’s serve, including one by an ace, to get back within six points. But Lee was able to close out the set with an eight-point margin.
The Wildcats led by two most of the second set until Mount Greylock’s Julia DeChaine scored a pair of points to tie the set at 13-13, just before Brown’s tip put the Wildcats on top.
Annie Herman won two points on her serve to re-establish Lee’s lead. And a couple of turns later, Brown served three straight -- getting kills from Joyce and Mya Andre -- to put the Wildcats up, 20-14. They maintained that margin and won the set by five with a Brown kill on the third set point.
In the third set, Brown served four straight to open an 11-5 lead, but Mount Greylock fought back, getting small mini runs from Darrow, Kapiloff and Charlotte Coody to even the match at 15-15 on a Savage block.
But Brown got a kill on the next point to keep the Mounties from taking a lead, and the teams traded points before Brown served six straight to get a match point at 24-17.
Mount Greylock refused to go down without a fight and staved off four match points before Brown finished the contest with her 17th kill.
Unlike the Western Mass sectional tournament of old, Saturday’s contest does not send Lee to the state semi-finals. In fact, it means nothing at all in terms of the state tournament. The MIAA granted the PVIAC an “exemption” for the regional tournament finals to allow the finalists to play one more than the maximum allowable number of games in the regular season, and the exemption games don’t count toward teams’ records for state tournament seeding purposes.
That good news for Mount Greylock: Although the Mounties were disappointed and don’t get to hang a Western Mass title banner on the wall of their gym, they will be back in that gym on Monday to get ready for the state tourney.
“Great experience,” Mounties coach Greg Geyer said of the opportunity to play the regional tournament as a tune-up for states. “Our match against Turners Falls [in the semi-finals] was really intense, and this was a good learning experience as well.”