Lee Tops Mount Greylock, Claims County Title
LEE, Mass. -- Down by eight points in the second set of Monday’s de facto county championship game, the Lee volleyball team did not need to do anything too fancy.
It just needed to play its game.
And when you have won the county title 10 of the last 11 years, you know your game is pretty good.
“We needed to get back into our system,” Lee coach John Warner said of the timeout he called with Mount Greylock up, 12-4, in the second set. “We kind of got back on our heels in our pass. Once we started to get a few passes on, we started regenerating that offense.”
Lee stemmed the tide right away and charged into the lead late to win that set and take a 25-18, 25-23, 25-19 win and sole possession of the county championship.
Libero Anna Wang had 29 digs, and five different players had at least four kills apiece as Lee avenged an early season loss to the Mounties in Williamstown and denied Mount Greylock a share of the title.
“When you’ve got a diversified offense coming at you like that, [opponents] struggle as to where to pick that ball up,” Warner said. “That’s good. That’s ultimately why we beat them, because we’re coming at them from a lot of different spot here.”
Mount Greylock still had a seven point lead late in the match. It was a six-point margin when Lee senior Bailey Thomas stepped to the service line.
She ran off five straight points to get Lee within a point of the Mounties. Erin Briesbois had one of her five kills, and Thomas notched an ace during the run. Kylie Joyce (nine kills) put away a point to make it 20-19.
Mount Greylock earned a side out, and the teams traded points until the serve came around to Suriana Lee, who took the ball with her team down, 23-22.
Lee served the next three points -- not allowing Mount Greylock to make a return on any of them -- to put away the set.
“We had some injuries that we didn’t have last time, which made a difference,” Mount Greylock coach Greg Geyer said. “We didn’t serve receive as well. [Lee] served very well. I thought we served well most of the time. We have work to do.
“Hats off to Lee for taking the county. It’s a great rivalry, and we’re looking forward to hopefully seeing them again in the [Western Mass] playoffs.”
Lee opened up a big lead late in the first set when Lee served three straight points to get the score to 20-13. Thomas won two points on her serve to get to set point at 24-17, and the Wildcats put the set away two points later.
In the second set, Maddie Albert and Gabby Alvarez had a couple of small runs to help the Mounties build the early lead, and Mount Greylock traded points with Lee until Thomas’ serve changed the tide.
Albert finished with a team-high five kills for Mount Greylock, which got four assists apiece from Alvarez and Ali Howard.
Caroline Hadley recorded a team-high five aces for Mount Greylock, including a couple when she took the ball facing match point at 24-16 in the third set.
“When we were down significantly, to some degree we played more in the moment,” Geyer said. “Playing in the moment is a big deal. You have to be in the moment when you’re serving game point. There’s a lot of emotion to this game, [Lee’s] Senior Night, everything.
“I’m very proud of this team. I love how hard this team is working. We’ve come a long way, and 14-4 at the end of the regular season is a good record. We should get a decent seed, and I’m looking forward to coaching them the rest of the way.”
The Wildcats expect to go a long way, as usual, in the Western Mass tournament. That is why Warner structured his team’s October schedule to give it the kind of challenges it will face in November.
“One of the things I did this year was I made sure the end of my season was loaded with heavy competition,” Warner said. “We had Frontier, which we took to five [sets] and lost, 15-12 in the fifth. That’s last year’s state champion. We went out to Lincoln-Sudbury and played them; they’re leading their division as a D1 school. We took them to five and lost 15-11.
“So we’re playing some really intense matches here, and that’s what I want to do. I want them to experience that high-caliber, five-set, grind-it-out match.”