Mounties Get Jump on Season, Sweep Wahconah
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The Mount Greylock volleyball team ended last fall as the dominant force in Berkshire County.
It started the 2023 season in dominant fashion on Monday evening.
Julia DeChaine served the Mounties to a 9-0 lead in the first set, and they went on to a 25-12, 25-13, 25-18 win over Wahconah.
The reigning Western Massachusetts champions and 2022 state finalists got 13 kills from Celina Savage and five aces from Kelsey MacHaffie.
And they relied on precision serves up and down the lineup to jump on top and stay on top in each set.
“I think, in practice, we really try to work on consistent serves and spot serving,” DeChaine said. “I think that this year, we really improved and tried to be aggressive and really pick a spot and serve for that spot.
“It was really important [to jump ahead early]. I think that kind of momentum is what brings up the energy. If we were on the other end of that, it wouldn’t have turned out so well.”
A pair of Savage kills in the middle of that opening run helped push the lead to 9-0. After Wahconah pulled to within five at 15-10, Mount Greylock’s Talia Kapiloff recorded a block to regain the serve and served three straight points to push the margin back to nine at 19-10.
Wahconah coach Dave Lussier indicated that his team had trouble getting into the flow of the match early.
“The 9-0 hole wasn’t because [Mount Greylock] had nine kills,” Lussier said. “I really feel as though it was beginning of the year jitters. I believe we were playing, probably, a little tentative, and we let service runs go.
“Greylock’s a great serving team. They can move it around. They can hit different spots. But it wasn’t something that we shouldn’t have been able to handle.”
In the second set, MacHaffie provided the big early service run.
She got the ball with her team down 2-1 and served seven straight points – two on aces and the last on a Savage kill, to give the Mounties a six-point margin. Midway through the set, the hosts got four straight points on Jackie Brannan’s serve to get to 20-9 before taking a commanding lead in the match with a 25-13 win.
Four more points on MacHaffie’s serve gave Mount Greylock an early 9-1 lead in the third set, but Wahconah rallied late to get within five.
Megan O’Bryan served four straight points, forcing Mount Greylock to take a timeout, to trim the margin to 22-18 and give Wahconah some hope.
But Brannon got a point on a tip at the net to stop the run and regain the serve, and Savage served out the match.
“At the end of the third set, I was very proud of them because it seemed as though the light went on, and they played to the potential they have all the time,” Lussier said. “Running through a rotation and getting used to playing next to each other makes things a little tentative, especially when you start off with a big game in your first match of the season.”
The PVIAC had scheduled the Western Division match for Sept. 25, but it was moved to Monday, two days before the rest of the division starts the season, to avoid Yom Kippur.
Eva Jacinto had 20 digs, and Olivia Carr-Cole had three kills to lead Wahconah (0-1) which hosts West Springfield on Wednesday.
Mount Greylock (1-0) gets another Western Division match against an old Berkshire County rival on Wednesday when Lee visits Williamstown.
Mounties coach Greg Geyer likes the work ethic he has seen from his squad so far.
“This team is a bunch of hard workers, and they have a lot of grit, already,” he said. “When you get a big lead, it’s easy to let up, and we didn’t. We just kept grinding and kept grinding. I’m really proud of that.
“And if you give Wahconah breathing room, they’re going to come get you. They’re a really good team.”
So, it appears, are the Mounties. It is too soon to say how good Mount Greylock is compared to the 2022 edition, but the arrow is pointing in the right direction.
“I think we’re a really close-knit team,” DeChaine said. “We’re mostly seniors, and we’ve played together for like six years. I think that really helps.”