Strong Serving Leads Mount Greylock Past Mount Everett
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass - The Mount Greylock Mounties seemed to pull an ace out of the deck on every turn on Thursday, as an exceptional serving game helped lead to a 25-17, 25-7, 25-14 win against the Mount Everett Eagles.
“We’ve been working on being tough servers, and we really now are also putting them in,” Mounties head coach Greg Geyer said. “So you put that together in getting a high serve percentage and you serve tough, it puts you at a great level of play. We served really tough and really well, and I’m really happy for that.”
Mount Greylock took control in each set thanks to its strong serving, most particularly on jump serves from Lainey Gill and Takiera Darrow. Each girl ignited a scoring streak that led to victory in the first two sets, which provided more than enough momentum for the Mounties (7-4) to close out the sweep in the third match.
In the opening set, Gabby Alvarez fed Lucy Shepard for a kill that put Greylock up 6-4 and rotated Gill for the serve. Gill rattled off eight straight service points, with four aces. Emma Hayward got into the act with five consecutive service points, with four aces, that pushed things to a 21-8 lead. Alvarez then set up Shepard again for the closing bounce.
A similar turning point came in the second match. Ashley Atwood thumped one past the Mounties and Alexis Atwood followed with a service point that pulled the Eagles within 7-6. Alvarez added another of her game-high 23 assists as she fed Alyssa Phelps for the kill that then had Darrow serving. Darrow’s jump serve found the floor on six straight possessions as she rained aces across the court, which churned out 16 consecutive service points to suddenly make it 24-6.
Darrow led Greylock with 17 service points with 10 aces, seven kills and three digs.
“Both those runs came from our jump serve,” Geyer said. “What they do is a jump-floater, and what it does is it changes the pace. If everybody is standing and serving and you have that jump-floater come in, it looks different. It comes at you different, so it makes it a little harder to react to. Those runs were the whole match; it was really back-and-forth other than that.”
The Eagles (2-8) displayed their grittiness to the end, putting in their most competitive match in the final set. Alvarez sparked Greylock to an early advantage with seven service points to open things, but Mt. Everett answered back, as two straight service aces from Faith Angell pulled things within 10-9.
Angell celebrated her birthday on Thursday, and she had a solid overall day to lead her squad. She finished with four kills, three service points with three aces and two blocks.
Brodi Rosier then got in on the serving theme late with three service points that put the Mounties on the brink of the sweep, and the final kill of the night came at the end of a strong volley after Hayward chased down a stray ball and managed to send it across the net uncontested.
It was only fitting that the night ended on such an impressive play, after there were numerous moments of volleyball at its finest throughout the night. During several stretches the two sides kept the action going with no breaks, each club moving the ball well and challenging the opposition to respond in turn.
“Those are the instances that make this sport so fun when you go back-and-forth and everybody is making great plays,” Geyer said. “It is just really exciting and it makes you better to play somebody that keeps pushing you like that.”