Butler Does It for Pittsfield in Five-Set Win

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- Marie Butler recorded 20 kills, and Shakia Green provided a key late service run Wednesday as the Pittsfield volleyball team earned a five-set win over Taconic.

 

Green took the ball with the score tied, 6-6, in the fifth set and served four straight service winners to establish a four-point margin for the hosts.

 

Pittsfield then closed out the match on Butler’s serve, using a kill from Autumn Rodgers to set up match point before putting the contest away, 23-25, 25-15, 21-25, 25-17, 15-8.

 

On a night when the two teams matched set for set and momentum swing for momentum swing, Butler’s hitting was one of the few constants.

 

“When we can get the ball in good position for her, she’s really hard to stop,” Pittsfield coach Brian Lawton said. “The thing about it is, she hits hard but almost never hits out.”

 

And Butler also showed a good finesse game to complement her power on the attack.

 

“We were actually looking at their defense,” Lawton said. “The first two, she tipped line, and then we noticed the middle was wide open. So she tipped a couple in the middle and got some easy points that way.

 

“You go up and bomb a couple, you can get them on their heels playing defense.”

 

Taconic had Pittsfield on its heels early in the first set when Alyssa Morley recorded a couple of aces to make it 12-7 for the visitors.

 

The Generals rallied back to take a 19-18 lead with a three-point run on the serve of Emma King, but Taconic took a timeout at to stem that momentum. Kacie Chadwell served a pair of points for Taconic, and Pittsfield never regained the lead, eventually dropping the set on an Ava Sinopoli ace.

 

PHS dominated the second set thanks to a couple of strong service runs from Butler an Brennah Brickle.

 

Brickle recorded five aces in two separate turns on the line. She finished with six to go along with 33 assists. Butler served four straight points in the middle of the set to take a 12-10 lead that Pittsfield never relinquished.

 

After the 10-point loss in the second set, Taconic, which lost to Pittsfield in three sets in their first meeting, could have folded up the tents.

 

Instead, it rallied to take the third thanks to a six-point run on Delaney Ivas’ serve.

 

“I wasn’t really surprised because I saw how well they were playing in the first set,” Lawton said of Taconic’s comeback in the third. “We got on kind of a roll in the second set, that can happen. But I could tell by the way they were playing, they were still in it. They weren’t down on themselves. They were still getting the ball up to the front and getting their offense going.”

 

“It was exciting,” Taconic coach Jen Doerle said. “We’ve had a rough year, but they’re always up for PHS. We had it together. We were passing well. We were serving well. Lately, our serve’s been so-so, but we were pretty much right on for most of the game.”

 

Chadwell finished with four aces, and Sinopoli had three. Tory Tynan had five assists, three kills and three blocks for Taconic.

 

Ivas took the serve with the third set tied, 7-7 and did not give up the serve until her team had a 23-18 lead.

 

Kilyah Hargraves-Johnson had a pair of kills during the run. Tynan had a kill on set point to put Taconic up 2-1.

 

Pittsfield won the fourth on the strength of service runs by Adam Quinto and King. Quinto served four straight points to open a 17-11 margin. One rotation later, King served four straight to give the Generals an insurmountable 22-13 lead.

 

In the deciding fifth set, Green’s run of serves gave Pittsfield a working margin it never relinquished.

 

Taconic goes to Mount Anthony on Friday. Pittsfield is off until it goes to Wahconah on Tuesday.