Wahconah Stops Franklin Tech in Three Sets
DALTON, Mass. -- Midway through the first set on Thursday night, the visiting Franklin Tech Eagles had a 14-12 lead over Wahconah.
Then the ball went to Wahonah’s Sasha Fyfe, and she served nine straight points.
Wahconah never looked back.
Fyfe served four of her match-high five aces in the first set to lead Wahconah to a 25-19, 25-15, 25-15 win.
“We’ve been working on our serves lately,” Wahconah coach Dave Lussier said. “Our serve percentage has not been where we wanted it in a couple of those games where we lost or went to multiple sets. I was really happy with what they were doing. They weren’t giving up power, and they were hitting their spots. And Sasha had a nice long run there.”
McKenzie LaBier had a team-high seven kills, and Jennah Bird passed out eight assists as Wahconah improved to 4-3.
Defensively, Olivia Wehner and Fyfe pulled up 16 and 13 digs, respectively to help Wahconah snap a two-match losing skid.
In the second set, Hannah Friedman went to the service line with Wahconah trailing, 10-8, and served seven straight points to take the lead for good.
The set ended with four straight points on Fyfe’s serve, a run that included an ace and a Casey Wilson kill.
Friedman gave Wahconah control early in the third set by serving five straight points, including an ace and a Katelyn McCormack kill, to get to 11-4.
McCormack and Breanna Robert each had a pair of kills in the decisive set.
Wahconah looked unstoppable in one of its -- hopefully -- final outings in the soon-to-be-former high school gym. It certainly looked better than it did in the season opener, when Franklin Tech took Lussier’s squad to five sets before Wahconah emerged with the win.
“We’ve been trying to work hard on reducing unforced errors since that match,” Lussier said. “Our loss against Turners Falls was the next game after that, and we had multiple unforced errors -- either serving errors or hitting balls out of bounds, just giving points away.
“We’ve been really working hard reducing that, and the last three or four games, they’ve really succeeded in lowering that number. Speaking of Turners Falls, that’s a big league match for us on Monday, so hopefully we can carry the momentum off of this game into Monday’s game and turn that into a win.”