SOUTH DEERFIELD — The stars were out at Goodnow Gymnasium on Tuesday night.
In a potential Western Mass. Division 3 championship preview, host Frontier Regional School made an impressive statement. Riding the play of outside hitters Olivia Deane and Jalen Sullivan, the Red Hawks overpowered Lee High School for a 25-18, 25-15, 25-22 sweep in an independent girls volleyball match.
The two teams have met in the WMass finals each of the past four years, with Frontier coming away victorious all four times. The program has won 14 consecutive sectional titles, and looked the part in Tuesday’s sweep against the Wildcats. Visiting Lee entered with a sterling 14-1 record, but struggled to get into its offense and racked up hitting and passing errors.
Still, Frontier coach Sean MacDonald said he wouldn’t be surprised if the two heavyweights cross paths again in the postseason.
“I expect to see them again,” said MacDonald of Lee. “I had nothing on them this year. I knew their setter was back but didn’t really have any information after that. So there were a lot of unknowns coming into tonight’s match. We were looking forward to this one, knowing they’re the cream of the crop in the Berkshires and they have been for a long time.”
Lee head coach Julia Warner saw her team’s 14-match winning streak halted with the loss. The Wildcats (14-2) hadn’t lost since their season opener against Longmeadow back in September.
“You learn about your team when you lose a match,” began Warner. “We obviously haven’t had success (in Western Mass. finals) against Frontier but we’re looking to change that. We’ll try and improve and move forward, take it one game at a time.”
Frontier (12-6) rode the play of Deane, who racked up 16 kills in a dominant effort offensively, and Sullivan, who put down six kills and served well in the win.
“They have a couple of great hitters and any time we handed the ball back to them, they had their way with it,” Warner said.
Despite missing six serves in the opening set, Frontier settled in with Deane registering five kills in the frame. A 9-2 run with Deane at the service line created some separation, and a pair of late errors from Lee secured the opening 25-18 win.
“I think eight of their first 10 points came from our errors so there are definitely things we need to clean up,” MacDonald said. “This was by no means a perfect performance. You get a lot distractions with Senior Night, sometimes it can be hard to refocus, especially early in the match.”
Frontier honored its two seniors, Sullivan and Kimani Topolski, prior to the match.
The Red Hawks built sizable early leads in both the second and third sets. Lee setter Suriana Lee helped stem the tide on several occasions, finding Kylie Joyce (seven kills) and Lizzy Brown (five kills) to pull the visitors back within shouting distance. But Frontier libero Reilly Isler went on a big service run to help close things out in the second set, with help at the net from Jillian Apanell (three kills) who kept several long rallies alive with her scrambling ability.
In the third frame, Lee rallied back with both Katelyn Clark and Joyce at the service line. Clark keyed a 9-0 run that included kills from Joyce and Brown, and the Wildcats actually pulled even at 22-22. That forced a timeout from MacDonald, which was followed by a Lee service error. Topolski stepped up and slammed the door, with the senior putting down a pair of aces to secure the match and the 25-22 third-set victory.
“I definitely feel better about where we are right now as a team compared to three weeks ago,” said MacDonald, whose team has won six of its last seven matches.
Aliyah Noel finished with nine assists and four digs for the Wildcats, with Joyce registering 10 digs and Brown adding seven digs to pace the back row defensive effort.
“We didn’t pass as well as we should have,” said Warner of her team. “We just weren’t able to generate offense like we are capable of doing. There was some miscommunication at times.”
Isler’s 17 digs was tops for the Frontier defense, and she added a pair of aces. Setter Olivia Rosewarne dished out 22 assists, with Sydney Scanlon adding eight assists in the victory.
The Red Hawks close out their PVIAC Eastern schedule Thursday night against Longmeadow, as the team will hold its “Spike it for Life” fundraiser in South Deerfield.