County's Top Volleyball Players Show Off Their Skills
DALTON, Mass. – For all the seniors in Monday’s Berkshire Volleyball Showcase, it was a chance to represent their team on the court for one final time.
For Shira Sawyer and her Mount Everett teammates, that opportunity meant just a little bit more.
“The last game we played against Ware, we didn’t know that that was our last game,” Sawyer said after helping Team Green to a three-set sweep of Team Gray at Wahconah. “That was in the loser’s bracket of the Western Mass tournament, we thought there would be more games.
“We were so close.”
The Eagles ended up as the 33rd ranked team in Division 5.
The top 32 teams – plus squads that finish .500 or better – make it into the state tournament.
The No. 32 team in the state playoffs, Kipp Academy of Lynn, ended up with a home game in the play-in round and advanced to the Round of 32, where it eventually fell to Mount Greylock.
Mount Everett ended up looking on from the sidelines when the state tournament began.
“We didn’t know that would be our last game,” Sawyer said. “We have a school-wide volleyball tournament, just within the school. But [Monday’s showcase] was different. It’s a lot of fun playing with girls who know how to play volleyball and have a good time.
“I’m very glad. Because now I know this is the last game of my high school career. So that means a lot. I had fun. I hope everyone else had fun.”
If the laughs and smiles on the court and on the benches were any indication, everyone else did. And the fans looking on had fun seeing some of the county’s top players show off their skills.
The second-year event put a cap on a successful season for Berkshire County volleyball.
Mount Everett was the only one of the county’s eight programs not to reach the state tournament – and just barely in the Eagles’ case.
Two county squads, Lee and Mount Greylock, played in title games in the Western Massachusetts regional tournament. And the Mounties won that title and the county’s first state championship on Saturday in Worcester.
On Monday, two county student-athletes, Mount Greylock’s Celina Savage and Wahconah’s Sasha Fyfe, missed the local showcase because they were busy playing in the Massachusetts Volleyball Coaches Association All-Star game as the county’s first two all-state selections since 2009.
The athletes who did attend were neck-and-neck all night, with the Green squad pulling ahead late in each set to take wins by scores of 25-23, 25-20 and 25-23.
In the first set, Taconic’s Ella Stodden served four points to get her team an 18-14 lead before Lee High’s Karlynn Hopkins of the Gray delivered a kill to break her run.
Gray battled all the way back to tie it on another Hopkins kill at 22-22. But a couple of points later, Monument Mountain’s Ella Saupe got a tip to give her team its first set point at 24-23 and then recorded a kill to cash in that set point.
Gray jumped out to a lead in the second set with a five-point run on the serve of PIttsfield’s Hailey Rumlow to open a 6-0 lead.
And it led 16-10 after winning a point off a free ball from Monument Mountain’s Lily Khalsa.
But Sawyer got a kill for a side out and then rotated back to the service line for the Green.
She served the next 12 points to give her team a 23-16 lead.
“It was definitely weird playing with a completely new team,” Sawyer said. “It took a first set and even the first few points of the second set to figure out a groove. It’s nice to have some aces in there. But once we got the ball back over the net, I think it helps that we all had a gist of who plays what, who was where, whose position was what.
“And it came together in the end, which was very nice, because I’ve never met any of these girls before.”
Sawyer had a pair of aces in the decisive run, which also saw the Green get kills from Mount Greylock’s Talia Kapiloff and Taconic’s Jaydn Galliher.
The Gray again led early in the third set, taking five points – two on aces – on the serve of Lee’s Juliana Schuerer.
But Pittsfield’s Marley Perras got a kill for the Green to break that run, and Wahconah’s Taylor Mason eventually served three straight points to get her team back within one, 16-15, with a kill by sister and teammate Olivia Mason.
The Green eventually took the lead and got a little cushion with runs by Galliher and Stodden, who served an ace to push the margin to 23-20. The event eventually ended on an unforced error by the Gray to give the Green its third set win.
Team Gray: Olivia May, Monument Mountain; Gianna Pesce, Mount Greylock; Camila Sebastian, Pittsfield; Hailey Armold, Lenox (unable to attend); Karalynn Hopkins, Lee; Jamie Sweren, Mount Greylock; Juliana Schuerer, Lee; Hailey Rumlow, Pittsfield; Mercedes Kosik, Mount Everett; Eva Jacinto, Wahconah; Lily Khalsa, Monument Mountain; Natalia Dos Santos, Taconic. Coach Ken Chen, Wahconah.
Team Green: Autumn Schwab, Lee; Jadyn Galliher, Taconic; Kelsey Kirchner, Lenox; Kaylee Cohen, Mount Everett; Ella Saupe, Monument Mountain; Marley Perras, Pittsfield; Olivia Mason, Wahconah; Anna Nealon, Lenox; Ella Stodden, Taconic; Talia Kapiloff, Mount Greylock; Shira Sawyer, Mount Everett; Taylor Mason, Wahconah. Coach Kyle Henry, Monument Mountain.