Cellana, Perez Named Athletes of the Week
A pair of North County student-athletes who have their teams primed for post-season success earned this week's iBerkshires.com/Southwestern Vermont Medical Center Athletes of the Week.
The Mount Greylock girls volleyball team has been a force to be reckoned with the last few years.
More than halfway through this regular season, the Mounties were 5-5, but they since have gone 5-0, starting with a 3-2 win over highly-ranked Lenox and ending with a sweep in the quarter-finals of the Western Massachusetts Class C Tournament.
Mount Greylock has won that tournament each of the last three years, and Olivia Perez is a big reason why it is poised to contend for No. 4.
Perez leads Mount Greylock in kills and aces this fall and is second only to primary setter Kaleigh Jaros in assists with more than 100, or just more than seven per match.
In the Mounties' signature win over Lenox, she had a triple-double, putting away 21 kills while pulling up 12 digs and notching 15 assists.
In Saturday's Western Mass opener, she just missed a different triple-double, collecting 10 kills, 14 assists and nine aces.
Perez and the Mounties will be at home Wednesday in the regional semi-final against either Smith Vocational or Springfield International Charter, who play on Monday in the quarter-finals.
The McCann Tech boys soccer team will play in three different post-season tournaments.
On Tuesday, the Hornets learn who they will meet in the quarters of the Western Massachusetts Class C Tournament, and with a 7-2-4 record, they are easily in the field for the Division 5 State Tournament.
But McCann Tech also is inline to be seeded second in the State Vocational Small School Division Tourney.
Although the Hornets ended the regular season with a loss on Friday, the 2-1 setback against Division 3 Pittsfield should not hurt McCann Tech in terms of its power ranking.
Senior Rocco Cellana has been a force for the Hornets this fall, notching two hat tricks in its last five games.
Most recently, he scored three times in a 4-1 win over Drury that, at the time, extended an 11-game unbeaten streak.
His coach said that Cellana can hurt opponents from a variety of places on the field.
"I had him at striker at first in the beginning of the years," Stephen McAllister said. "And then I moved him to left wing to open things up for him to have a little more mobility. And it seemed to work out.
"And then today [against Drury], I threw him back over to striker just at the end of the game, and he put another one in."
The iBerkshires.com Athlete of the Week is sponsored by Southwestern Vermont Medical Center.