HOLYOKE — It was an epic match, a classic heart-stopper throughout.
And somehow, a young and inexperienced Frontier Regional girls volleyball team managed to extend its streak of Western Massachusetts Division 3 championships to 12 with a riveting 25-19, 24-26, 29-27, 25-27, 15-11 victory over Lee on Saturday afternoon at the Bartley Center.
“This win with this team in Western Mass., regardless of what happens from here, is definitely one of my top five sweetest wins,” said Frontier coach Sean MacDonald. “I don’t think we’ve had a five-setter (in the final) since 2006 against Turners Falls. But we knew Lee was really good and we weren’t sure how our girls would do on this stage.
“Words can’t express how proud I am of this team and what they’ve done,” he added. “We look like the team that got shrunk in the wash, we’re small. But a combination of good training principles, working really hard, trying to be the smartest team, and playing in tough spots allows them to be closer in some matches than we should be on paper.”
Frontier (11-11) will return to the Bartley Center on Wednesday at 5 p.m. to face Central Mass. champion Millbury (20-4) in the state semifinals.
The top-seeded Wildcats were able to take Frontier to a fifth set after a stirring fourth-set win, but the Red Hawks started the deciding set with a Selayna Bathurst kill and never trailed.
The Red Hawks built the lead as high as 12-6 before Lee rallied to close the gap to 12-11 behind the serving of Kendra Williams.
Hailey Orloski’s kill stopped the run and gave Frontier a 13-11 lead, and Olivia Deane served for the final two points. The Wildcats, who were called for a net violation and a four-hits violation on the final two points, made eight unforced errors in the final set. It was a recurring theme for Lee, which struggled with consistency all match.
“Too many unforced errors,” Lee coach John Warner said. “We had four experienced seniors and five in all, and this was our year. Now we’re going to have to rebuild.”
Warner repeated his original answer after a few more questions. It was clear that he was frustrated by the numerous miscues, and the fact that his squad had beaten Frontier during the regular season.
“We knew how to beat them,” he said.
Those mistakes were costly in the first-set loss, which saw the Wildcats commit three service errors and four hitting errors. Despite the mistakes, Lee led at three different times in the set, the latest being 14-13.
But the Red Hawks used a balanced attack with Lauren Davenport (22 kills, 13 digs, four aces) and Bathurst (12 kills, 15 digs, three aces) combining for five kills, and Sarah Zoly adding a pair of aces to cruise to the win. Setter Ella Deane (47 assists, 10 digs) also aided the win by running the offense smoothly, even during some of the more chaotic moments.
The Lee miscues continued early in the second set, as the Red Hawks held an eight-point lead at two different junctures (14-6 and 17-9). But the Wildcats started to rally behind three kills apiece from Bailey Thomas and Ahna Schlaefer and eventually pulled out the win to tie the match at 1 set apiece.
Lee appear to have all the momentum going into the third set, and rode a six-assist effort from Kendra Williams, three kills from Haleigh Richardson and a tremendous group effort on defense to open up a 19-11 lead.
Unfazed, Orloski (eight kills, four digs) and Davenport combined for five kills, Grace Randall (five kills seven aces) served for two aces, Lee committed seven unforced errors and Bathurst finished the set off with a kill to give Frontier a 2-1 lead.
The fourth set was close — 16 ties, eight lead changes — as neither team held more than a three-point lead. Frontier led late, but three unforced errors helped Lee retake the lead. Frontier tied it at 24-all, but Thomas got a tip to fall in and her subsequent kill on set point forced a fifth set.
MacDonald did the best he could to help the team not worry about the title streak potentially coming to an end.
“It was on the girls’ mind walking out of here last year,” said MacDonald. “It’s always on our players’ minds, and I try to take the pressure off them. People might say it’s not a big deal that Frontier won Western Mass. again, but this is a big deal for us this season because it’s such a different situation.”