Front Line Comes Up Big for Mounties at Wahconah

DALTON, Mass. -- Mount Greylock's front line amassed 56 kills in a balanced attack as the Mounties defeated Wahconah in four sets on Monday evening.

 

Serena Chow and Jenna Benzinger each had 19 kills, and Hope Willis added 18 as the Mounties improved to 12-3 overall and stayed in the hunt for the Berkshire County title.

 

After earning its second win of the season against third-place Wahconah, Mount Greylock faces two big league tests in its next two matches: Wednesday at home against Pittsfield and next Monday against Lee in the Mounties' home finale.

 

On Monday in Dalton, the visitors fell behind early when Wahconah (10-3) staved off a set point at 24-25 before earning a 28-26 win.

 

The Mounties went on to take he match, 26-28, 25-18, 26-24, 25-18.

 

Mount Greylock coach John Albano said he did not feel the need to make any changes after dropping the first set.

 

"We just got warmed up, basically," he said. "We didn't really make any changes -- a few less errors maybe. three We made a couple of service errors in the first set, and I think we cleaned that up a little bit."

 

The second set turned on a run of three straight serves by Chow.

 

After Wahconah let a free ball drop to give up the serve and a 16-15 lead, Chow took over and built a 19-16 Mount Greylock advantage that it never surrendered. Willis had two kills during that run.

 

Benzinger and Willis each had a kill in a four-point run by Dagny Albano that closed the set, which she ended with an ace.

 

The third set was as competitive as the first. Wahconah took a 23-20 lead on a Hailey Parker block that forced a Mount Greylock timeout.

 

But Willis registered a kill to regain the serve for the Mounties, and Marley Buffis served three straight points to give Mount Greylock a 24-23 lead. The Mounties lost the serve when a ball into the ceiling messed up their play.

 

Then Mount Greylock regained the srve on a Benzinger block to make it 25-24, and it again closed the set on Albano's serve.

 

The fourth set was decided by a four-point run on the serve of Maddie Albert that left the Mounties with a 19-12 lead. Chow had two points during the run; the last point came on Albert's ace.

 

Willis led the Mounties with eight aces, and Albano collected 50 assists in the middle of the Mount Greylock attack.

 

Wahconah's Parker had 31 assists, and Juli McBain had 19 digs. Sara LaFreniere and Emma Parkington led the their team with 14 and 12 kills, respectively.

 

Wahconah coach David Lussier said his squad missed chances to get the points it needed to build on the momentum of the first set win.

 

"We played great defense, kept the ball in play," Lussier said. "Our attack just wasn't there and we missed a ton of serves when we had our lineup where we should have had multiple points - we immediately gave them the ball back.

 

"It's hard to cover unforced errors, and we had a ton of them."

 

Wahconah travels to face Lenox on Wednesday.