Mount Greylock Wins 3-0 in Western Mass Quarters
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The No. 3 Mount Greylock volleyball team ended the match in three sets Monday evening against No. 6 Turners Falls in a rematch of last year's quarterfinal in Montague.
Last season, Mount Greylock won in five sets to advance to the semi-finals, but Monday evening they got things done quicker on their home court.
"It feels pretty great, I think we've come very far in comparison to last year and a lot of games have shown us that," senior captain Hope Willis said. "I think we're doing a lot better this season and I'm very excited and proud of the team."
The Mounties finished the first set with ease with junior Carly Munzer serving two aces in a row followed by a tip kill from Serena Chow to put them ahead 9-3; Munzer then hit Turners with another ace, forcing it to call time-out trailing 10-3. Greylock came back out to finish it 25-12 with a match-point serve from Oriana Van Slycke.
Going into the second set, Turners Falls found some momentum, taking its first lead of the game, 9-8, but Greylock found its rhythm again and went on a 6-2 run, bringing the score to 15-10 and bringing a timeout call from the visitors.
"I think the key to that was definitely to just not get down when they started to get up," Willis said. "We've worked on that a lot, we've worked on coming together and being more of a team, keeping our heads up and I think that really helped, because if you don't get down there's no reason to have to build yourself back up, we just kept going."
And the Mounties pulled away the second set, 25-13, to lead 2-0 going into the third set where they closed it out and secured a spot in the Western Massachusetts Division 3 semifinals.
Serena Chow had six kills and three aces, Jenna Benzinger had seven kills, Carly Munzer had four aces, Hope Willis had four kills and Marley Buffis had four aces for Mount Greylock.
Next up for the Mounties are the second-seeded Lee Wildcats in the semifinals on a day to be announced. On Monday, Lee blanked No. 7 Athol. On the other side of the bracket, fifth-seeded Wahconah dropped a 3-2 decision to Ware, which will face top seed Frontier in the semis.
Back on Oct. 26, Lee handed Mount Greylock a 3-1 loss to claim the Berkshire County title.
"We're just hoping to change up some things to keep them on their toes," Willis said. "We're working on spreading out our offense and we just really want to make a move and definitely look for more opportunities to score more points."