Lenox Sweeps Its Way to Western Mass Crown
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – When Saturday’s Western Massachusetts Class C volleyball final was over on Saturday afternoon, the championship trophy ended up in Emily Barenski’s hands.
It was fitting, because Lenox’s 3-0 win got started when the ball was in Barenski’s hands.
The senior libero served seven straight points to give her team a 15-12 lead in the first set.
Lenox went on to win that set and rolled to a 25-20, 25-18, 25-13 win that gave the Millionaires a 2-1 win in the season series against the Mounties and, more importantly, avenged two straight losses in the Western Mass finals to Mount Greylock.
Though the final score was decisive, the start was shaky for Lenox, which fell behind 9-3 on an Anna Garnish ace and trailed 12-8 when the serve came around to Barenski for the first time in the match.
“I think we just had to get a group huddle and had to remind ourselves: We made it here, we made it this far,” Barenski said of how the Millionaires turned around the first set. “We beat them once. We fell short the second time. But we know we’re capable of doing it, and we just had to remind ourselves at the end of the day that we made it this far to play against them.”
Second-seeded Mount Greylock (11-6) has been a standard-bearer for Berkshire County the last few years. Saturday marked its fifth straight Western Mass final, and it won the last three, including the precursors to state finals appearances in 2022 (a runner-up finish) and 2023 (a state title).
But Lenox has consistently been the team to beat in Berkshire County in 2025.
Its only loss was a 3-2 setback in Williamstown at the start of the month. The Millionaires since have gone 6-0 to improve to 18-1, and heading into Saturday’s competition, Lenox was ranked fifth in the commonwealth in Division 5.
The state tournament pairings are due to come out on Tuesday.
Barenski compiled a team-high six aces, including several on that pivotal first-set run, to go with a team-high 13 digs and five assists for the libero.
Primary setter Grace Julieano had 22 assists – 10 of them to her sister Evelyn and eight to Sara Isby.
The MIllionaires leaned into their finesse game to keep Mount Greylock off-balance all evening while Evelyn Julieano, Isby and Claire O’Brien (six kills) took their share of swings, a lot of Lenox’s points came off pushes and tips.
“We just found the open spots on the court, whether that was tipping, pushing, hitting,” Grace Julieano said. “I think we just communicated really well.”
A typical sequence came late in the second set, when O’Brien settled under a ball on the right side of the court and watched a pair of blockers go up for Mount Greylock. Rather than taking a swing, she waited until the Mounties were at the top of their jump to tip the ball over them and into open court to make it 21-13.
“We’ve gotten a lot better on not jumping at the moment but just settling down, taking a breath and slowing it down on our side, which has helped us tremendously,” Lenox coach Anna Nealon said.
Mount Greylock’s offense was keyed by Olivia Perez (nine kills) and Tyanna Lepicier (five kills), who had some of the biggest swings of the night for either side.
“I thought that Tyanna and Olivia both had great offensive nights,” Mount Greylock coach Greg Geyer said. “But we had a lot of trouble getting the ball to our hitters because we started off on a bad foot, serving and passing. And that just gave them an advantage.
“I thought our defense played pretty well, but [Lenox] was way more consistent. They had a lot fewer errors than we did.”
Geyer attributed Mount Greylock’s unforced errors, in part, to the team’s inexperience.
“The last time we came in second was five years ago,” he said. “That team came back and learned a lot. … It takes being in this kind of moment to understand how to play in this kind of moment.
“This group of girls is the youngest group we’ve ever had and the newest to varsity we’ve had. And the way they’ve worked and the way they’ve progressed this year, I am incredibly proud of them. … And hats off to Lenox. They played a great game.”
In the second set, Lenox benefited from two smaller service runs by Leanna Marshino and Barenski, who each served three points to help establish a six-point edge.
Mount Greylock was not able to string points together the entire set, which ended on a Marschino kill to make it 2-0 in the match.
The third set started with an eight-point run on Evelyn Julieano’s serve that started with a kill by O’Brien and ended with Lenox ahead, 9-3. A four-point run from Isby that included a rotation error by the Mounties pushed the margin to double digits at 17-7, and Lenox never looked back.
“It means a lot to us,” Grace Julieano, one of seven Lenox seniors, said of the regional title. “We’ve lost to them at least the last two years in a row. We were even with them this year. I think we wanted it more. We put in all of our effort. And it feels really good to have that banner now.”