After dropping the first set to South Hadley, Granby came back with a vengeance in the second set. 

With the score tied 7-7, Madison Bombard stepped up to the service line for Granby and put the Rams in control, reeling off eight points to give the Rams a 15-7 lead before finally hitting a serve out of bounds. The Granby bench was electric, and it seemed like South Hadley might be too frazzled to recover. 

But the Tigers, playing in front of a home crowd, called a timeout in the middle of Bombard’s run and were able to slowly claw their way back, tying the game back up at at 17 all and then relying on some killer serving from Grace Matyszewski late to secure a second set victory. 

That set the Tigers up to seal the match in the third set, winning 3-0 against Granby (25-12, 25-20, 25-14). 

“Our server Madison Bombard carried a lot of us on our serves, she had some amazing serves. I think where we're losing is we're not getting it at the net very well and we're missing some pockets,” Granby head coach Stacy Bombard said. “But we're gonna work on that and hopefully bring it together.”

Besides their difficulty receiving Bombard’s serves in the second set and a couple out of rotation calls that went against South Hadley, the Tigers looked strong against the Rams, particularly at the service line. Isabella Schaeffer had a run of her own at the service line for the Tigers in the first set, rattling off eight points before she sent the ball into the net to end her run, building up an 18-10 lead that Granby was never able to catch up to. 

Once they won the second set, South Hadley regrouped and wiped the slate clean for the third set. 

“We came into third set and said it's a new set, it's a new us,” Schaeffer said. “We’ve scratched the last two sets, whatever we did in the last two sets we won’t do in the last one, and that's exactly what we did. We came back stronger.”

The Tigers raced out to a 10-3 lead, reeling off eight consecutive points with Emily Piligian at the line. With the score 10-3 South Hadley, the Tigers forced Granby to call a timeout in an effort to regain control. The Rams didn’t give up, getting withing seven points after being down 16-4 at one point, but it was too little, too late for the visitors. 

The Rams fell to 0-5 on the season, while the Tigers improved to 4-1. 

 Southwick 3, Smith Vocational 1 – The Vikings managed to snag the second set against Southwick to tie the match at one set each, but dropped the second and third sets to fall to Southwick (12-25, 25-21, 18-25, 22-25)

Heidymar Diaz-Lopez led the team with 10 digs and five kills, and Jose Dubay led the team at the net with two blocks in addition to one kill and a dig. 

Jaelyn Kulas finished with four digs, an assist an a kill, and Abby Derochers had four digs in the loss. Setter Roma Bentrewicz tossed up eight assists.

Amherst 3, Turners Falls 1 – The ‘Canes faltered in the third set against Turners Falls but were able to close the door in the fourth set to secure a win (25-13, 25-22, 16-25, 25-13). 

Kiko Bhowmik took care of the offense with 10 kills and libero Liza Beigel dug up 18 balls in the back row and led the team with three aces. Setter Abigail Como had 34 assists and Lauren Joy and Ruby Austin had nine and seven kills, respectively. 

Westfield 3, Frontier 2 – The Redhawks lost a heartbreaker in their fifth consecutive away match, falling in five sets to Westfield (25-22, 25-22, 24-26, 24-26, 9-15). Errors in the fourth and fifth set made things difficult for Frontier at the end of the contest. 

Caroline Deane posted 14 kills and 17 digs to lead both the offense and defense. Setter Allie Pierce had 26 assists, 14 digs and three aces. Gabby Adams had nine kills and 10 digs and Kate DeMaio and Olivia Machon added six kills each. 

Boys soccer

Hampshire 3, Agawam 3 – The Raiders played to a 3-3 draw on Monday, highlighted by a milestone accomplishment for Hampshire’s Aidan Miklasiewicz.

Miklasiewicz scored his 100th career point with Hampshire, notching a goal in the tie. Also scoring for Hampshire was Owen Miller and Brendon Stevenson. 

Goalies Colin Holt and Liam Pond made four and five saves, respectively. 

Athol 3, PVCICS 1 – PVCICS goalies Richard Ang and Damian Loinaz were heroic in net, making nine saves each, but it wasn’t enough against Athol on Monday. 

Patrick Canavan Gosselin scored the Dragons’ goal off an assist from Clayton English. 

Ludlow 2, Belchertown 0 — The Orioles spent the majority of the game on the defensive half of the field, as Ludlow’s attack proved to be too much for them.

Belchertown’s Jack Mandeville recorded 12 saves on 14 shots to keep his team in it, but a goal in each half was all the Lions needed to drop the Orioles down to 1-2-1 this season.

Chicopee 8, Holyoke 2 – Arthur Mazzu and Bradley Provost scored for the Purple Knights and Xavier Matos tallied an assist in the loss. 

Landon Koziara made five saves in net and Jaybriel Rivera-Soto made four stops. 

Weekend results

Girls soccer

West Springfield 3, Amherst 0 – Amherst goalie Neena Chinappa made seven saves to try and slow West Springfield, but the ‘Canes offense couldn’t get past West Springfield keeper Chloe Lazier, who made four stops for the shutout. 

Granby 8, Chicopee 1 – Kalli White notched a hat trick and added an assist in a dominant win against Chicopee last Thursday. 

Granby’s McKenna Zumbruski had three points (2G, 1A) and Sophia Gagnon posted a goal and an assist. Maggie Crawford and Brenna Moreno also scored for the Rams and Olyvia Redmond picked up an assist. 

Goalies Meredith Bartosz  and Eleanor Szzlosek made four and one save, respectively. 

Franklin Tech 4, Gateway 0 – Gateway keepers Jaidon Plant and Zoe Serotkin made four and one stops, respectively, against Franklin Tech last Friday. 

The game was close at halftime before Franklin Tech scored three goals in the second half to pull away from the Gators. 

Boys soccer

Chicopee 2, Granby 1 – A close loss to Chicopee on Saturday dropped the Rams to a 1-1-1 record. 

Gavin Moreno scored Granby’s lone goal off an assist from Ben Berger. Rams goaltender Daniel Santiago stopped seven shots in net. 

Girls volleyball

Ware 3, Granby 0 – The Rams pushed hard for a fourth set, but fell in three sets to Ware after forcing a deu ce in the third set (25-19, 25-18, 26-24). 

Annabella Brown had nine kills and five digs and Ariana Beaulieu had nine assists. Madison Bombard posted four aces and Noel Summerlin had seven digs. 

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