Frontier cruises into girls volleyball final, seeks seventh straight title
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SOUTH DEERFIELD - On to the finals again.
Defending state champion and top-seeded Frontier Regional got off to a hot start and cruised to a 25-4, 25-18, 25-16 victory over fifth-seeded Lee in the semifinals of the Western Massachusetts Division 3 Girls Volleyball Tournament at Goodnow Gymnasium Thursday.
The Red Hawks (20-1) advance to face Northern Division rival and second-seeded Mahar Regional (15-5) in the championship on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Holyoke Community College's Bartley Center. Frontier is after its seventh straight title.
Frontier "is a well polished team, and the girls know that going in," said Lee coach John Warner, whose squad finished with a 17-5 record. "We set as our criteria that we just wanted to score more points than we did last time, and we did that. So that was our victory."
Frontier's Kate Harper opened the match by serving for 15 straight points, including three aces, while All-State outside hitter Cassidy Stankowski ripped five kills in that stretch.
After trading points briefly, Marie Wheeler toed the service line at 19-3 and served four straight points, including a pair of aces, then after another exchange of points, Sarah Woodward closed out the set with a kill that wasn't returned.
"It was nice to see," said Frontier head coach Sean MacDonald of the fast start. "It was a little bit of a relief to see us come out and play the way we can play. Kate had a great start with that run."
The Wildcats (17-5) immediately put the first set behind them and bolted out to a 7-2 lead in the second set behind Vanessa Castillo's five straight service points, while the Hawks committed four unforced errors.
Frontier got the ball back at 7-3 and Marie Wheeler tied it with four straight serves, three of them aces.
Lee briefly retook the lead, but Frontier quickly pulled even as Stankowski stepped to the service line. She then cranked up her powerful jump serve and unleashed eight straight lasers, including six in a row for aces, to help the Hawks build a 16-8 lead.
Lee cut the deficit to six before Ali Durant reeled off four more service points to make it 21-10.
At set point (24-13), Lee's Lauren Richardson registered five straight points on serve to close the gap, but a Wildcat unforced error allowed Frontier to win the set and take a 2-0 lead.
"I told the team that sometimes teams get a little intimidated just by the name, before we even play, and the reputation," MacDonald said. "But that wears off after the first game so expect them to come back in the second game.
"They don't quit," MacDonald added. "John does a nice job, he's got a great group of girls, and they fight until the end."
Lee led for a good portion of the third set, which included three lead changes, but Frontier pulled even at 13-13, and Wheeler (10 assists, seven aces, three kills) ripped off four straight aces during a six-point service run to put the Hawks in control. Stankowski (13 kills, 10 aces) added two more aces on jump serves to make it 22-14, and after exchanging points, the Woodward sisters recorded the final two points - Emily got a back set to fall in, while Sarah's dig of a serve went back over and fell just inside the line.
Courtney Parent dished out 17 assists in the win, while Harper chipped in four kills.
Richardson finished with four kills and five assists, while Castillo collected five digs.
"We had a terrific season," said Warner. "I never expected to go this far with these girls. We just didn't have the firepower, but they were a scrappy team."
