Lenox Bounces Back with Win over Wahconah
LENOX, Mass. – The Lenox volleyball team Tuesday bounced back from its first loss of the season with a statement win.
Grace Julieano passed out 21 assists, and Claire O’Brien put down eight kills in a convincing three-set victory over Wahconah.
Emily Barenski, the team’s third senior captain, had 17 digs in the 26-24, 25-10, 25-21 win on Senior Night for the Millionaires.
The win gave the No. 8-ranked team in Division 5 statewide a 13-1 record and a season sweep against Wahconah, the No. 9 team in Division 4 in the latest MIAA in-season power rankings.
It also gave a special memory to the seven seniors who were celebrated before the contest.
“It’s obviously a very emotional night,” Julieano said. “We’re really just all playing for each other at this point. We want our season to go as far as we can. So I think we really used this night as motivation.”
Lenox coach Anna Nealon said the emotions of the evening run deep.
“I think you also dream of winning on your Senior Night,” she said. “These girls have been playing – like Emily [Barenski], our libero, has been playing on varsity since her eighth-grade year.
“They have been dreaming of winning on their Senior Night. It’s every girl’s dream. And they just took that energy and killed it.”
The match started out with the makings of another five-setter like the first time the teams played in Dalton back on Sept. 11.
Wahconah (11-4) took an 11-4 lead in the first set after Taea Cunagin (19 kills) served four straight points.
Lenox was still down by five when O’Brien put down a kill to make it 20-16 and earn her team a side out.
Senior Leanne Maschino (four kills, two blocks) served five straight points, the last an O’Brien kill to make it 21-20.
After the teams traded side outs, a service winner by O’Brien gave Lenox an advantage at 23-21.
Wahconah tied the set one more time, at 24-24, on a kill by Emma Jacinto (nine kills), but Lenox earned a side out and put the set away on Barenski’s next serve.
The Millionaires then grabbed control of the second set and the match with two huge early service runs.
Evelyn Julieano (six kills, five aces) served six points, including a couple of aces, to give her team a 7-1 lead. Then Maschino served eight in a row to push that margin to 16-2.
Wahconah settled down a little, but four straight points on Barenski’s serve, the last on a push by Grace Julieano, made it 23-8, and a few points later, O’Brien’s kill ended the set and gave the Millionaires a 2-0 lead in the match.
“It’s a roller-coaster ride,” Wahconah coach Dave Lussier said of the second set. “They had a big crowd here tonight. They played really well. They weren’t really making a lot of mistakes. They’re a good team, and we didn’t capitalize. When we had our own runs going, we kind of stalled on our own.”
Grace Julieano said the Millionaires played about as well as they have this season in that second set.
“Our defense was really good,” she said. “We were reading where they were going to hit or tip. Our hitters were reading where the blocks were going to be, so we hit line a lot, and they just couldn’t cover it. And Claire [O’Brien] saved us a lot.”
Like the first set, Wahconah got an early lead in the third. Jacinto served five in a row, including an ace and a couple of Cunagin kills, to give the visitors a 12-6 lead.
But an Evelyn Julieano push snapped the run, and a couple of side outs later, Barenski served three points in a row to get the Millionaires within one at 13-12.
A kill by Lenox’s Sara Isby made it 21-18, and Wahconah was not able to tie it again. Maschino did the honors on the first match point, converting an assist from Grace Julieano to end it.
Wahconah, which earned an emotional, four-set Senior Night win on Monday against D2 Westfield, will look to get back in the win column on Friday when it travels to face Mount Greylock, the team that knocked Lenox from the ranks of the unbeaten.
“I believe we have the hardest schedule in Berkshire County,” Lussier said. “Of our eight independent games, six of them are Division 2 teams, and two of them are Division 3 teams. So we’re stretching all the time.
“I thought we could carry a little of that into tonight. But the emotion of Senior Night and whatnot, [Lenox] capitalized on that in a good way. And we just ended up on the wrong side.”
The Millionaires will look to carry the momentum forward into its last two regular season matches: Friday at Lee and Oct. 16 at Monument Mountain.
“I think we’re eighth in states and first in Western Mass [Class C],” Grace Julieano said. “And we’re really trying to maintain the first-place spot. It’s keeping us motivated.”