Bote Leads Mount Greylock Volleyball Team Past St. Joe

 

 

 

 

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The Mount Greylock volleyball team on Monday served its way to a three-set victory over St. Joseph in the Mountie Dome

 

Celia Bote recorded 14 aces, and Carly Munzer added eight to lead the Mounties to the victory with scores of 25-11, 25-6 and 25-16.

 

"We've worked really hard on that," Mount Greylock coach John Albano said. "We have quite a few people who can serve. And we're going to keep work on that because it really does change the game."

 

Once the Crusaders got into points, they were able to compete, but Mount Greylock used big runs fueled by aces to open up wide margins in the first and second sets.

 

In the first set, Bote took the serve with a 13-8 advantage and ran off nine straight points to get the Mounties within three points of closing things out.

 

St. Joe failed to return seven straight serves -- the last two after Bote switched to a jump serve.

 

Hope Willis closed out the set with a kill at the net. She ended up with three kills, as did Serena Chow. Hailey Guest led the Mounties with four kills to go along with a team-high three blocks.

 

In the second set, Dagny Albano (14 assists) got Mount Greylock off to a quick start with four straight points -- the last two on aces -- for a 4-0 lead. Bote took the Mounties' turn on serve and ran off seven straight points, including four more aces, to make it 12-1.

 

Carly Munzer (eight aces) drove a series of hard serves into the St. Joe backcourt that the Crusaders could not return to get the Mounties' lead up to 18-2.

 

With several of Mount Greylock's starters watching from the bench, the third set went back and forth until Rachyl Bazonski served four straight points to make it 22-13.

 

St. Joe captain Leanne Hamilton recorded a couple of aces to get her team within seven at 23-16, but the Mounties ended her run and finished the match with an ace by Josie Verter.

 

The win got Mount Greylock (8-3) within one win of a Western Massachusetts tournament berth with seven matches remaining.

 

John Albano said he liked the way his team is rounding into form as it heads into the final couple of weeks of the regular season.

 

"We're thinking about how to improve for the post-season," he said. "We certainly have some things to improve upon. We're going to keep working on our serving and serve receive -- the key parts of the game.

 

"We need to be able to compete at that post-season level."

 

Mount Greylock will look for win No. 9 on Wednesday at Taconic.