HOLYOKE — Nina Hayes cradled the ball behind the service line.
She took her time before putting the ball in play. It could be the last serve of her Amherst Regional girls volleyball career.
The Hurricanes trailed Hopkinton 24-23 in the fourth set and 2-1 in the Division 2 state semifinal Wednesday at Holyoke Community College.
“I’ve been put in those situations more than anybody should,” Hayes said. “Everytime I take a deep breath, block everything out and serve.”
After taking a deep breath, Hayes served. Hopkinton set Julia Canestrari on the left side. She found the floor to finish the set and the match.
Amherst lost 3-1 (25-16, 25-19, 17-25, 25-23) to end its unbeaten run.
The Hurricanes (23-1) lost more sets against Hopkinton than in their entire season prior.
“We surprised ourselves with how we blew through western Mass. competition. I felt like we never had to battle like this,” Amherst coach Kacey Schmitt said. “I felt like we came in and we kind of needed to remember how we had to rise to that level. I know they can, but they hadn’t been challenged enough at the end of the season to come in ready for that.”
Hopkinton (21-1) started the match locked in. The Hillers never trailed in winning the first set and led by as many as six points in the second set, building a 2-0 lead.
“The plan is always to start strong, stay strong,” Hopkinton coach Margie Grabmeier said.
The Hillers didn’t stay strong in the third set. Amherst built a 3-0 lead early and led by as much as eight up 17-9.
Megan Rice (nine kills) and Hayes (11 kills) were able to put more force behind the ball after better passing and pick up kills.
“If you don’t have one piece of the game together, you can’t do anything,” Rice said. “If the passing isn’t there, you can’t set up the hitter as good as you could to really slam it down.”
Winning the third set ignited the Amherst crowd and hitters for Set 4. But Hopkinton regained its composure. The teams traded the lead six times before Hopkinton ended the set.
The Hillers led by as much as six, but Amherst came back to tie the set at 16 on a combined block by Jen Joy (six blocks) and Teya Nolan (31 assists). Joy picked up a kill to give Amherst a 17-16 lead.
Amherst led last at 21-20, but Hopkinton scored the next four points to force match point. A Claire Basler-Chang kill, her ninth, followed by a Hopkinton error brought Hayes to the service line for a third Hopkinton match point.
The Hurricanes couldn’t save it.
“I was still confident we could get that back. So much of it is luck,” Schmitt said. “I was nervous, but I was also confident. It doesn’t always work out that way.”
The loss ended the Amherst volleyball careers of seniors Rice, Periya Yath, Amy Lynch, Evelyn Foster, Joy and Hayes. They went unbeaten in western Mass. despite not playing a home game at the high school after water damage forced them to the middle school. The Hurricanes won their first sectional title since 2006 playing tournament home games at Williston Northampton..
“It was just a wonderful, wonderful group of girls to coach,” Schmitt said. “I’m going to miss them because I enjoyed seeing them every day.”
The pain of the loss lingered on the HCC bleachers as Rice gathered up her bag and prepared to leave. Her Hurricanes career over, the outside hitter offered some perspective.
“Right now we’re kind of looking through a murky window, but by tomorrow morning it’s going to clear up, and we’ll be able to see everything we accomplished,” she said. “We had our best season ever in our memories and for us. Hopefully by tomorrow we’ll be like ‘we won Western Mass. We lost one game.’ We only lost one game.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.