Mounties Return to Final Four

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – In the third set of Friday’s Division 5 State Quarter-Final at Mount Greylock, the Pope John Paul II Lions learned a valuable lesson: Don’t poke the bear.

 

The Mounties already had a 2-0 lead in the match and were coming off a dominant second set.

 

On the second point of the third, Mount Greylock senior Celina Savage hit into a double block, and the ball came back for a JPII point and a 2-0 lead for the visitors.

 

The very next point, Savage slammed a kill into the same block for a side out.

 

Then she delivered kills on the next two points to give her team a 3-2 lead on its way to a 25-22, 25-9, 25-13 win.

 

The victory gave Mount Greylock a third straight trip to the state semi-finals and a record of 23-0.

 

With more than 350 kills this fall, Savage is a big reason why the Mounties earned the No. 1 seed in DV and why they are going back to the Final Four to face Baystate Academy on Monday night.

 

After celebrating with her teammates and the state semi-finalist trophy, Savage said that block early in the third set helped center her.

 

“I hate getting blocked,” she said with a chuckle. “It doesn’t happen often. I think it just reminds me that I’ve really got to put my all into every hit. I can’t just relax because I have a reach advantage over the other person.

 

“Just because of my height, it doesn’t mean I can’t get blocked. It really refocused me, I think, and I started to hit in more. Honestly, I was a little bit thankful.”

 

Savage finished with 12 kills, and Julia DeChaine had eight for Mount Greylock, which started slow for the second match in a row but found its groove after surviving a late comeback bid by the Lions in the first set to win by three points.

 

Despite a few errant attacks early in the first set, the Mounties built a solid 22-16 lead late.

 

But Charlotte Sturgis notched a kill for John Paul II for a sideout, and Caitlin McGrail served the next three points to get her team within two. The Lions closed to within one at 23-22 before a Mount Greylock sideout got the ball to Kylie Sweren (five kills, two aces), and she served out the set with Savage delivering the final point with a kill.

 

Mount Greylock took the lead early in the second set with a four-point run on the serve of Kelsey MacHaffie (four aces, one kill). It then steadily built its margin, not allowing the Lions to win a point on their serve the rest of the way.

 

“About three points into the second set is when we started to get our mojo going really,” Mount Greylock coach Greg Geyer said. “One of the things we’ve had as a team this year is, we have so many weapons, especially serving, that we get leads a lot. And it’s a different feeling when you're out there with a big lead.

 

“What we’re not as used to is the tight game.”

 

Mount Greylock has dropped just four sets this year and been pushed to a fifth set only once, by eventual Division 2 semi-finalist Longmeadow on Sept. 11.

 

“Last year, we had a lot of tight games,” Geyer said. “Having a tight game tonight is good for us. That’s what’s going to happen on Monday. We’re going to have a tight game. Every game is going to be tight from now on. And, being able to play through that, we’re the kind of team that can.”

 

The third set was tight in the early going. After Savage’s three straight kills, MacHaffie served two more points to open a 5-2 lead, but John Paul II got back to even at 7-7 before a service error gave the ball to Mount Greylock’s Talia Kapiloff (five kills).

 

Kapiloff started her turn at the service line by getting an ace off the net to make it 9-7, and she served five more points in a row to open a 14-7 lead before giving up the serve.

 

One rotation later, Jacqueline Brannan (five aces, two kills) served eight points in a row to push Mount Greylock’s advantage to 23-10.

 

The Lions got a side out and three points on Ziata Alioshka’s serve before the Mounties’ Gianna Pesce recorded a kill to get match point and a side out.

 

DeChaine served an ace to end the contest and start the celebration for Mount Greylock.

 

And while the Mounties have more work ahead of them next week, Geyer pointed out that the accomplishment of getting to the state semi-finals is worth celebrating.

 

“It is incredibly hard to get this far,” he said. “It takes luck, it takes skill, it takes work. And then it becomes even harder each step of the way. And it comes down to momentum. It comes down to intangibles. It comes down to everything. And I want to make sure everyone knows how proud I am of this team over the last four years and its accomplishments. That’s way more important than where we end up.

 

“Of course, we’re trying to get to the finals. That’s our job now, to get to the finals. And if we get to the finals, we’re going to try to win it. But we’ve got some really good teams to play against.”