HUDSON — Frontier Regional School girls volleyball coach Sean MacDonald may have summed up Tuesday night’s MIAA Division 3 state semifinal best in nine words.
“It’s a bad day to have a bad day,” he said.
The Red Hawks struggled in several facets of the game and had their season come to an end by the team it defeated in the state championship one year ago as South sectional champion Bourne High School dispatched Frontier, 25-17, 25-19, 25-23, at Hudson High School.
“It’s unfortunate,” MacDonald said of his team’s performance. “Bourne played well, and it was not our cleanest match serving, passing or defending. The things that usually work didn’t work today. They are a good team. I feel like we are better than we showed today, and if you ask them I think they would tell you they were better than they showed in the state final last year. That’s the way it goes. We didn’t do enough to come out on top and a lot of it was on our side of the net.”
In what is rare for Frontier, the team was plagued by errors throughout the match. Bourne, meanwhile, played a very clean match and had several bounces go its way. It was redemption for the Canalmen, who had their season ended by Frontier in the state finals one year ago in straight sets. Senior captain Emma Fenton said that loss has been on their collective minds since.
“Definitely, walking away from that game last year, we were all heartbroken,” she said. “We came into this season with the common goal of not only beating Frontier, but winning the state championship. Doing that today is indescribable. This is what we’ve been working towards all season and it’s just the best feeling in the world.”
Bourne advances to Saturday’s state finals where it will face Whitinsville Christian, which defeated Austin Prep in Tuesday’s other semifinal match. The time and place of that match has yet to be determined.
The Canalmen (26-1) got off to a great start, only trailing at 5-4 in the first set before they took over and began to put some distance between themselves and the Red Hawks. The first set saw Frontier (21-3) commit several errors, something that plagued the West sectional champions throughout the match. Bourne opened up a 16-10 lead in the middle of the set and was able to cruise from there to the first-set victory.
“I think everyone came ready to play and coach (Andy Mather) does a really good job preparing us for those moments of high stress, high pressure,” Fenton said.
Bourne showed off its depth in the first set as Fenton had several of her team-high 17 kills in the set, but was joined in the hitting parade by teammate Kameryn McAnaugh, who had four kills in the frame, as well as Charlotte Orth, who had a pair of kills in the first frame.
Frontier’s Lauren Davenport had three of her team-high 12 kills in the opening set, but the Red Hawks struggled to get any momentum. Their serving, which was a highlight of their win over Lee in the WMass finals, was inconsistent throughout the match, and in the first set no Red Hawk player ever served more than two straight points.
Frontier jumped out to a quick lead in the second set as Olivia Deane had back-to-back aces to start the set, but Bourne erased that early on and took an 8-4 lead as McAnaugh served four straight points before Mattison Stuck won a pair of points on her serve. Frontier began to come back as senior opposite hitter Hailey Orloski and Davenport each had two kills in the middle of the set, which helped Frontier pull into a 13-13 tie. Bourne began to pull away from there, however, as McAnaugh had two kills before Fenton took over with one block and two straight kills. Frontier made a late run in the set before Fenton closed it out with a kill.
The third set was the closest of the night and featured four lead changes after being tied at 16-16. Davenport had six kills in the set and Frontier took a 22-19 lead late, but Orth took over serve and won three straight points, as the teams found themselves deadlocked at 23-23. A kill by McAnaugh and a hit out of bounds by Frontier sealed the match for the Canalmen.
Davenport added three aces and three digs in her final match with the team. Setter Elizabeth Fuqua, another senior, finished with 24 assists, three aces and two kills, and senior Ashley Telega had three kills and two digs. Orloski had five kills and two digs, and Sarah Zoly, the fifth senior on the team, had one ace and six digs. MacDonald got chocked up when talking about his five seniors following the match.
“I feel privileged to have coached such great young women,” he said. “There is a reason why they are our leaders and captains. They’ve done a lot for Frontier volleyball for six years. We are going to miss them. And we are looking forward to some of them going on and playing somewhere else. I feel privileged and blessed to come to practice every day and coach people who want to be there and want to get better.”
Deane finished with seven kills, six aces and 11 digs, and libero Reilly Isler had 16 digs.