Barenski, Black Lead Lenox to Opening Day Win

LENOX, Mass. -- There was one common denominator in each of the three sets won by the Lenox volleyball team on Tuesday night.

 

Each time, Maddy Barenski came up with some big serves.

 

Service runs by the Lenox junior were key as her team opened the season with a 19-25, 25-17, 25-15, 12-25, 15-11 win over Pittsfield.

 

"One of the key things is, we get Maddy to spot serve," Lenox coach Bessena Cabe. "We think about where we want the ball to go and figure out the holes on their defense and try to put the ball there.

 

"She was able to execute that game plan, which helped us pick up a lot of points."

 

She set the tone early, serving Lenox to a 5-0 lead in the first set before Pittsfield rallied to go ahead in the match, 1-0.

 

Lenox responded in the second set thanks to a six-point run on Barenski's serve.

 

She took the ball with her team down, 9-8, after a Kayanna Black kill, and when she was done, Lenox had a 14-10 lead it never lost.

 

The third set was back-and-forth until the very end. This time, Barenski took the serve with a narrow-, 16-15, advantage and proceeded to serve out the set, which she put away with a winner at the net to give Lenox a 2-1 lead.

 

Pittsfield (0-1) rallied with long service runs by Adam Quinto and Marie Butler.

 

The former spotted his team a 6-0 lead. Midway through the set, Butler served four points in a row to stretch Pittsfield's advantage to 17-6.

 

The dominating 25-12 fourth set for the Generals gave them all the momentum going into the decisive fifth set, but Cabe's team was able to settle down.

 

"Essentially, I told them, we've done this before for the last two sets of the game, and we've got to start 0-0," he said. "First to five, first to eight and eventually first to 15. Take it one step at a time, and they did really well."

 

Barenski got Lenox to five points in a hurry, serving six straight points as her team took a 7-1 lead.

 

Pittsfield fought back to within one point at 10-9. But a service error gave Lenox a side out, and Kristin Miller served two points to re-establish the Millionaires' working margin at 13-9.

 

The Generals ran out of time to make another run. But there was a lot of positives to take away from an opener where Pittsfield rallied to force a fifth set.

 

"It's good to fight back," Pittsfield coach Brian Lawton said. "It's a game of momentum, and we had it for a while. We lost it for a while. But overall, I thought we played a really good match.

 

"Running a 6-2 [formation], and we had 45 assists. That's crazy. We were putting a lot of balls up to our hitters because we're passing well."

 

Quinto and Maggie Burke split the setting duties, finishing with 27 and 18, respectively.

 

Butler had a team-high 10 kills for Pittsfield.

 

Barenski had 26 assists to go with eight aces for Lenox, which got 10 kills from Black.

 

"She's one of those players who is really smart and well-rounded," Cabe said of Black. "And I think being able to distribute the ball across the net and have her be the key hitter, she was able to execute to that."