Frontier Regional girls win fourth state volleyball title with epic 3-2 victory
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NORTHBOROUGH - The third straight state volleyball tournament matchup between Frontier Regional and Case felt like the classic third fight in a storied heavyweight boxing rivalry.
The teams traded haymakers throughout the contest Saturday, and it was the Red Hawks who outlasted the Cardinals for their second straight state Division 3 tournament championship with a 3-2 victory at Algonquin Regional.
"It was a battle, back-and-forth, back-and-forth," Frontier coach Sean MacDonald said. "I gave them the boxing analogy (before the match). I told them we are going to get hit. We need to be able to take the punch, get up and come back.
"We are going to take some lumps; they are going to take some and it's going to be the team that makes the least amount of errors that gets the win," he added.
It didn't look good at times for the Red Hawks (23-1), but the squad showed off impressive resiliency to win 23-25, 25-18, 17-25, 26-24, 15-11 in what will go down as an all-time classic.
"It was exactly the roller-coaster we were expecting," Frontier senior Marie Wheeler said of the game's emotional ride. "We conquered the roller-coaster pretty well. It was an up-and-down game and feeling like we conquered the roller-coaster felt great."
It was the fourth state title for the Red Hawks, who also won in 2005, 2006 and last season.
Case of Swansea ended its season with a 22-2 record. The Cardinals, who knocked Frontier out of the state semifinals en route to their own state title in 2009, have lost to the Red Hawks in the last two finals.
"We've been there," said MacDonald, who was reminded of his team's 2008 state final loss to North Reading, which was the second straight year the Red Hawks had been ousted by the Hornets. "They worked so hard all year looking to this. I know what they feel like. It's hard. You wish you could saw the trophy in half and say 'here you go.'"
On Saturday, the Cardinals looked poised to avenge last year's 3-0 defeat when it led 2-1 and controlled much of game four. They were digging everything and Frontier was struggling.
With his team trailing 13-9 and on the verge of a loss, MacDonald called time-out.
"I asked them how the energy felt and they said it wasn't too good," he said. "They didn't really look into it. To come back from that gut check was big. I was so proud of my team and the perseverance they showed."
It took Frontier time to pull the score back to even, but a service point by Kate Harper finally tied the game at 22-22. The teams traded points to 24-24 and then Stankowski hammered a kill and followed that with a big block to end the game 26-24 and even the match at 2-2.
"It really took a lot of energy and a lot of keeping each other up," Wheeler said. "It was about doing the basics. When we do the basics, we play a great game."
Already an intensely close match, things didn't get any easier in the fifth and final game, which only goes to 15 points for the win.
Frontier pulled ahead 5-1, but Case evened the score at 8-8.
Courtney Parent then knocked down a pair of Wheeler assists. "I haven't been hitting well lately, and to get kills and be helpful on the right side was really useful to us," said Parent, who finished with 24 assists and nine kills.
Parent then returned the favor by setting up Wheeler on a kill for an 11-9 lead.
"I was really impressed with our right-side attack because we always set the left," MacDonald said. "We set the left too much. And (Saturday), we got some kills out of Courtney and (Wheeler). That was huge for us to win that way."
Stankowski then buried a Parent assist to put her team on the verge at 14-11 and Case could not handle Julia Wan's serve to end the game, match and tournament.
"We had to come out with a lot of energy and that's what we did," Stankowski said of turning the match around in the fourth game.
"We knew we had to come back out, get in a huddle as a team and cheer our hearts out," she added. "That's exactly what we did. The energy really helped us. Girls were sacrificing their bodies left and right just to get one point."
Stankowski finished with 24 kills, 16 digs and five aces. Wheeler added 17 assists. Ali Durant had 24 digs. Harper finished with five kills.
"It's the perfect end to a senior year," Parent said. "We're like family. I've been playing with them since seventh grade and I wouldn't want to win with anyone else."
Jim Pignatiello can be reached at jpignatiello@gazettenet.com.
