East Longmeadow Tops Wahconah in Western Mass Final
CHICOPEE, Mass. -- Down two sets to none and 10-0 in the third against the No. 1 seed in Class B and 16th-ranked team in Division 3, the players on the Wahconah volleyball team Saturday could have decided it wasn't their day.
Instead, they fought to extend their day.
Wahconah battled back to get within four points at 18-14 before East Longmeadow was able to pull out a 25-17, 25-23, 25-17 win in the regional finals at Chicopee Comprehensive.
Juliana Bourassa served an ace to get Wahconah within four points, but East Longmeadow's Evangeline Schnabl put down a kill for a side out, and Lily Gurung served three points to give the Spartans a 22-14 lead, effectively putting the match out of reach.
"We brought it within four, but we gave them too much of a lead," Wahconah coach Dave Lussier said. "It was a possibility to make a big, long comeback. Those are rare, but we did have a shot at it. But then their hot servers came back again, and they were able to finish out that set.
"I'm proud of them, because I really feel as though they kept their attitude level up, and they wanted to play more. They wanted to have another set and keep going from there."
A four points helped East Longmeadow pull away in the first set.
Autumn Brockett had an ace in a four-point service run to get the Spartans' lead to 14-8.
It was an eight-point margin after Schnabl's tip gave East Longmeadow a side out at 20-12. But Ila Gagne's block got the serve to Melaina Haczela, who served three in a row to get Wahconah within four at 20-16.
After the teams traded three side outs, Brockett was able to close the set with three points in a row, including a pair of aces.
"They're a very good team," Lussier said. "They don't make a lot of mistakes. The high percentage of serving, which we struggled with a little bit today ... But I was also happy with our serving today and the percentages we put in. There were times we were putting pressure on them."
One of those times was the second set, when Haczela served seven points in a row, including three aces, to erase a two-point deficit and give Wahconah an 11-6 lead.
It was 16-12, Rougeau, after an Alex Rougeau tip.
But the Spartans got a side out chipped away at the lead.
The big blow was a three-point run by Brockett, whose ace gave East Longmeadow a 21-18 lead.
Wahconah came back to tie with a pair of points on Taea Cunagin's serve to get to 22-22. And a kill by Rougeau fended off East Longmeadow's first set point opportunity at 24-22.
But the Spartans put away the next point to take the 2-0 lead.
They then got a 10--point service run to open the third set from Sophia Lalchandani. Wahconah was never able to dig out of the hole.
Wahconah (14-7) in Division 4 and East Longmeadow in Division 3 learn Tuesday when and against whome they open play in their respective state tournaments.