Mount Greylock Moves to 12-1 with Win over Lee
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Takeira Darrow put away her fifth ace of the match on match point to give the Mount Greylock volleyball team a three-set win over Lee and a second victory over the Wildcats in the Fall 2 season.
"We get really excited to play Lee," Darrow said. "They're probably one of our biggest competitions. It's just crazy that we beat them both times this year. That's insane for us.
"We've come so far as a team because, when we started the season, we didn't think that we were going to work that well. Honestly, it feels really good."
Darrow had 10 kills, and Charlotte Coody recorded 17 assists for the Mounties, who got 13 digs from Emma Hayward in a 25-20, 25-23, 25-14 win.
Mount Greylock coach Greg Geyer was perhaps a little less surprised to see his team pick up its second win over the perennial Western Massachusetts powers and improve to 12-1 going into Wednesday's regular season finale against Pittsfield.
"I think with the kind of chemistry this team has, we can take on anyone," Geyer said. "It's very fun. They're great to work with. They're both hard-working, and they have fun and support each other. That's the chemistry that makes us able to beat anybody.
"There are a lot of good teams in the league. Wahconah is tough, Lee is tough, PHS took Wahconah to five [sets], Lenox is tough. There's a lot of really, really good teams, and anybody can beat anybody on any given day."
Lee got 10 kills and 12 digs from Liz Brown and six kills and 13 digs from Kylie Joyce. Makayla Shuerer passed out 15 assists.
The Wildcats stormed out to a 4-0 lead in the first set on Joyce' serve. Erin Brisebois had a kill, and Joyce had a pair of aces during that run.
Lee maintained that cushion until Lainey Gill went to the service line for the Mounties. She took the ball with her team down, 11-7, and served seven straight points to give Mount Greylock a 14-11 advantage.
Darrow had a block to get to match point at 24-20 and put away a kill to end the set.
Alyssa Phelps set up Darrow with a bump set. Most of her putaways came with help from Coody.
"That's all thanks to Charlotte," Darrow said. "She's improved so much throughout this season. We all have a great connection now."
Mount Greylock threatened to pull away in the second set with a five-point run on Darrow's serve to get to 19-14.
But Lee chipped away, tying the set, 20-20. But on set point, the Wildcats could not dig up a tip by Darrow.
The third set turned on a seven-point run on the serve of Emma Sandstrom to give the Mounties a 13-5 lead. They stretched that margin to 23-13 with back-to-back aces by Phelps before the Wildcats could earn a sideout. Tessa Leveque's kill set up match point, which Darrow earned with an ace.
Lee coach Julia Warner indicated her team may have run out of steam in the final set.
"This whole year, it's been an amazing thing to be able to play," Warner said. "And through all of this season, we've been struggling through injury and lots of up and downs and COVID-related breaks from play. And through that all, they continue to pull each other and build each other up.
"With that said, the first two sets were close. We had a lot of energy. And we were making some adjustments with different things we had to do like picking up a lot of tips and adjusting to where they were hitting the ball. And in the third set, we kind of lost some wind. We lost a little bit of momentum."