DALTON, Mass. -- Forget the eye of the tiger, the Easthampton girls volleyball team has the glare of its coach.
After Wahconah make a run that threatened its set-four lead and, perhaps, the outcome of Thursday’s Western Massachusetts Division 3 playoff opener, Eagles coach Molly Jacobson knew what had to be done.
And she knew how to get the message across.
“I knew that my seniors, especially my librero, really needed to take charge out there,” Jacobson said. “We were having a serve-receive breakdown, and she knew -- I gave her the eye, and she knew she had to step it up and take charge, tell people where to go, when to pass, how to play.
“It did come down to good senior leadership and keeping them together out there. It’s easy when you fall into a rut for these girls to turn their backs and start complaining and blaming. Our ability to stay strong together was certainly a winning factor.”
Easthampton (8-7) stopped a seven-point Wahconah run, built on its one-point lead to get to 21-19 and went on to win the set and the match, 25-22, 25-19, 14-25, 25-21.
Ruthenee Nhem had 20 assists, and Jordan Burt had nine kills and six digs to lead the Eagles into next week’s quarter-final against top-seeded Frontier (18-1).
Wahconah ended its season at 12-7, but with 10 juniors on this year’s 16-player varsity roster, this season could be more of a start than an end for coach Dave Lussier’s program.
“I’m very happy [with the year],” Lussier said. “We have a very big program. We’re moving in the right direction, making the tournament this year. Hopefully, next year we can do the same thing and get a little better seed than we did this year.”
Ninth-seeded Wahconah was playing from behind much of the match on Thursday afternoon -- starting when Stephanie Kubasek served four straight points to give the Eagles a 5-0 lead in the opening set.
The hosts scratched their way back into the set and briefly took a lead when Sarah LeFreniere dinked for a point to make it 18-17, Wahconah.
The teams then went back and forth, tying each other four more times before Easthampton won the last three points of the set on a kill by Burt, a kill by Niki Lewandowski and an unforced error by Wahconah.
In the second set, Wahconah jumped out to a 6-1 lead, but the Eagles responded with a 13-8 run to tie it. Moments later, Easthampton’s Kate Avard served five straight points to build a 20-15 lead, and Wahconah never got closer than four points the rest of the set.
It was Easthampton’s turn to take the early lead in the third, going ahead 6-1, but Juli McBain (12 digs, four assists) seven straight points to give her team the lead, 9-7.
“In the third set, we changed the matchups around a little bit to counter the offense that they had,” Lussier said. “Easthampton played with a lot of heart today. They brought up a lot of balls defensively and kept rallies going.
“Unfortunately, it ended a lot of times with mistakes that we made -- unforced errors.”
Wahconah took advantage of some errors by the Eagles to close out that third set.
Chloe Warren, who tied with LeFrenier for a team-high seven kills, had a couple of big kills down the stretch, and Hailey Parker (22 aces) and McBain served nine of the last 10 points as Wahconah turned a three-point lead into an 11-point win.
Easthampton looked to be on its way to an easy fourth-set victory when it jumped out to a 19-10 lead. But Wahconah battled, getting within 20-19 with the serve before an unforced error snapped a six-point run on serve by Emily Jordan.
The Eagles quickly re-established their lead and got to match point, which they captured on a service error by Wahconah.
