Youngsters Step Up, Millionaires Stay Unbeaten
DALTON, Mass. – Down eight points midway through the second set and down two starters, the Lenox volleyball team stayed up … and stayed undefeated.
Evelyn Julieano recorded 10 kills to lead the way Wednesday as the Millionaires beat Wahconah, 25-13, 28-26, 20-25, 25-21, to improve to 6-0 this fall.
Lenox came into the game without Sara Isby or Brooklyn Rodriguez. But ninth-graders Hadley Light and Lexi Witherell stepped in to fill the void.
First-year head coach Karalynn Hopkins was not too concerned about how his team would perform minus two of its regulars.
“I have been working with these girls all season,” Hopkins said. “We scrimmaged at every single practice for at least an hour, and I get everybody in. All of these girls on my team have seen court time this season, regardless of who we’re playing.
“I’m really proud of all of our whole lineup.”
Juliano finished with six digs and three aces to go with her team-high 10 kills. Olivia Ackerman and Bella Baltazar split the setting duties, passing out nine and six assists, respectively.
Light anchored the defense, collecting 10 digs. Amaya Alger had a team-high five aces and served a critical stretch in the second that allowed Lenox to get back into the set.
After winning the first set handily, the Millionaires found themselves down, 16-8, after Ila Gagne served an ace for Wahconah midway through the second set.
But after a couple of side outs, the serve came to Alger with Lenox trailing, 17-11.
She served five straight points, getting two kills from Julieano and a couple of aces to get her team within a point.
“That was huge,” Hopkins said of Alger’s run. “That gave us a lot of momentum, which is exactly what we needed. Tonight was a night of energy.
“Amay’s run, that was huge tonight. It gave us all the momentum for that second set.”
A couple of side outs after that, Julieano served four straight points, the last on a kill from Light, to make it 22-20, Lenox, and the teams battled from there.
Wahconah stayed in it, though, and had a set point at 26-25. But a hit into the net gave Lenox a side out, and Alger again went to the service line, where she served out the set to give the Millionaires a 2-0 lead.
“It came down to errors,” Wahconah coach Dave Lucier said of the second set. “They were performing well on all hard stuff. And the easy stuff, that’s where we’re making mistakes.”
Nevertheless, Wahconah rallied to take the third set and stay in the match.
A back-and-forth set turned on the serve of Wahconah’s Delaney Drake (23 assists), who served five straight points to turn a 19-18 deficit into a 23-19 lead. Emma Russell (five kills) and Marlee Arnhold (six kills) each had a kill during the run.
After a pair of side outs, Russell put down a kill to give Wahconah the set and trim the deficit to 2-1 in the match.
Wahconah fell behind by nine early in the fourth set when Lenox’s Ackerman served four straight points, getting one of Baltazar’s five kills to make it 13-4.
But the hosts chipped away at that margin and used three straight points on the serve of Violet Vale-Cruz (four aces) to pull within two points at 21-19.
Julieano got a tip at the net to end that run, one of several big plays she made down the stretch to help put away the match.
“She plays really smart,” Hopkins said of Julieano. “You could tell her where to hit, and she’ll do it the next point. It’s great.”
Perhaps fittingly, Witherell served out the match, getting an ace to get to match point and, after a Wahconah timeout, a kill from Bella Giardina (five kills) to end it.
Wahconah, which got a team-high seven kills from Kenadi Arnhold and six from Leah Kane, slipped to 4-4 this fall heading into Friday’s match against East Longmeadow.
Lenox (6-0) goes north of the state line on Friday to play Mount Anthony Union in Bennington, Vt.
Photos from this match to come.