East Longmeadow Advances Past Pittsfield

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The Pittsfield girls’ volleyball team fell to East Longmeadow in straight sets Thursday evening in the first round of the Western Massachusetts Division 1 Tournament.

 

The first set was a back and forth battle between the two teams; ninth-seeded East Longmeadow (11-10) started off with the lead. The Generals (12-8) came back, taking a 13-9 lead, but one serve later that quickly changed. 

 

From there East Longmeadow held the lead throughout the remainder of the set. A kill from Pittsfield’s Michaelea LeBlanc brought the Generals to 23-24, but East Longmeadow earned the game point taking the first set.

 

East Longmeadow dominated the second set and took the 24-13 win on a Pittsfield net violation.

 

“We lost some confidence in the second set,” Pittsfield coach Brian Lawton said. “Our passing started to go all over the place; we missed too many serves all night long. I think we were just trying to do too much with our serves.”

 

Pittsfield came back out strong in the third set, giving East Longmeadow a tough battle for the win.

 

“We just wanted to focus on getting our passing better so we could get our offense going,” Lawton said. “And I think we did that, we definitely had more offense in the third set because our passing was cleaned up; it was a good match, we just lost some heart at the end there.”

 

The Generals started off the third set taking a 5-2 lead; East Longmeadow was able to bring themselves within one point at 13-12; from there the lead went back in forth.

 

LeBlanc brought Pittsfield to an 18-17 lead, but East Longmeadow took over and walked away with the 25-18 win.

 

Pittsfield’s Sam DeCarlo finished with 18 assists and 2 aces, LeBlanc tallied 8 kills and 12 digs, Emily Koldys had 5 kills, and Taylor Turner finished with 10 digs.