Albano, Mounties Roll Over Lenox
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Nearly every Dagny Albano assist was served on a platter, and the Mount Greylock volleyball team's front line feasted on kills in a three-set win over Lenox on Wednesday evening.
Albano collected 30 assists as the Mounties prevailed, 25-18, 25-10, 25-16, to improve to 8-3 this season and stay a game behind undefeated Lee in the Berkshire County League standings.
Junior Serena Chow had 11 kills on 16 attacks, and Jenna Benzinger and Autumn Delorey had six kills apiece for Mount Greylock, which trailed just three times all day: at 9-7 in the first set and at 1-0 and 2-1 in the second.
"Everything was clicking," Mount Greylock coach John Albano said. "With our offense, everyone was contributing, which all comes back to our passing, which has been really good all year. They continued that tonight."
Lenox (4-6) had just two runs of as many as three points on its serve. But the Millionaires did do a better job of staving off the long runs by Mount Greylock in the third set.
"One of the things we struggled with was their hitter was very smart," Lenox coach Bessena Cabe said. "They had their outside coming, hitting in and out.
"And I think one of the things we did was our libero [Anna Lynch] really stepped up and got a better read on their hits. That defintely helped us out defensively. We just had a tough time putting the ball down. And they had a good defense as well."
Lenox went toe-to-toe with the Mounties in the beginning of the first set. And when Cami Smachetti served three straight points she gave her team that 9-7 lead.
But after the Mounties recovered the serve, Chow served seven straight points. Two came on back-to-back kills by Hope Willis to get the lead to 15-9.
Two rotaions later, Albano served four in a row to get the lead to 21-11, and the Mounties were able to close the set with a seven-point advantage.
Another long service run by Chow was the difference in the second set. She took the ball with Mount Greylock ahead, 9-4, and served six in a row, the last a kill by Delorey, to make it 15-4. The Wildcats never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
In the third, it was 22-10, Mounties when Cabe called a timeout to settle down his team.
The Millionaires earned a side out, and Morgan Levesque served three straight points to get the lead down to eight. But the Mounties recovered and took the set by a nine-point margin.
Lynch finished with 18 digs for Lenox, which got seven assists from Levesque.
Lenox travels to Mount Everett on Friday.
Mount Greylock is home on Saturday for an independent match against 2014 Western Massachusetts Division 3 finalist Athol.
John Albano said his Mounties are progressing well this season.
"We've faced a couple of harder teams outside our division who have been testing us," he said. "We're not quite there yet, but we're making progress. We're looking forward to finishing the season strong."