LONGMEADOW — The seventh-seeded Holyoke girls volleyball team dropped a five-set thriller to No. 2 Longmeadow, 25-19, 11-25, 18-25, 25-11, 16-14 on Monday in the Western Massachusetts Division 4 quarterfinals.
Autumn Charnik picked up eight kills, a block and five aces for Holyoke (18-2). Selena Garcia Rodriguez had seven kills, five blocks and an ace.
“I’m very proud of them,” Holyoke coach Paula Conway said. “They had a great season. It all comes down to a bunch of little things in a match. When you play a best of five you have to play all five. You have to play hard. If you win in three, you win in three. But if it goes to five you have to play hard.”
The Purple Knights opened the first set on a 4-0 run. Garcia Rodriguez propelled the fast start with solo blocks and kills from the middle of the front line. Ashanty Bonilla also chipped in a few solo blocks to stifle Longmeadow’s attack. The Lancers tied the set 16-16 and then went on a run to win the first set.
Holyoke dominated in the second set. Charnik spiked in kills and served up aces to power the Purple Knights to a 25-11 victory.
Charnik continued to attack in the third set. Coupled with great setting from Destiny Calderon (26 assists), the Purple Knights took the third set, 25-18, to go up 2-1.
Longmeadow (15-5) pushed back in the fourth set. The Lancers’ outside hitters overpowered the Purple Knights’ front line and cruised to a 25-11 victory to force a fifth set.
“We had a bit of a down set after we took the second and third,” Conway said. “The fourth was tough for us, but that happens.”
Holyoke jumped to an early 4-2 lead in the fifth set, but Longmeadow quickly jumped ahead 8-6. After back-to-back aces from Charnik and a block from Bonilla, the Purple Knights reclaimed the lead, 9-8.
Longmeadow reclaimed the lead with smart passing. The Purple Knights almost came back to win the match after being down 14-12 in the set, but fell 16-14.
The Central League champion Purple Knights were powered by the play of their seniors. With nine players graduating after this season, the team will have holes to fill moving forward, but the team’s seniors have served as good role models for the younger players and have set the program on a good path.
“It has been a great group of girls,” Conway said. “The program has benefited by having those kids on the team. I told the underclassmen to pay attention, because this could be them next year. They are good kids. They’re all captains. They’re great. This was a great match. I’m very happy with the way they played.”
Lee 3, South Hadley 0 — For the second year in a row, the Tigers were swept by the Wildcats in the Western Massachusetts Division 3 quarterfinals.
Top-seeded Lee won 25-15, 25-15, 25-14 to advance to the semifinals, where they will face No. 5 Mount Greylock.
“It was a combination of us being overmatched by a good team and not playing as well as we typical do,” South Hadley coach Corey Koske said. “I think our nerves got to us a little bit.”
Taylor Jackson and Jayna Schaarschmidt each had three assists. Julia Pratt and Kayla Simon each had three kills.
No. 8 South Hadley finished the season 13-7.
Monson 3, Easthampton 0 — The 12th-seeded Eagles were scoreless with the No. 5 Mustangs at halftime, but a trio of second-half goals in the final 20 minutes pushed Monson into the quarterfinals of the Western Massachusetts Division 3 Tournament.
“They’re pretty talented with a lot of skill and speed,” Easthampton coach Brian Miller said. “We kind of limited their opportunities and looked for something going forward.”
Tennessee Murphy scored twice, while Alex Doyle had the other goal for Monson (13-4-2), which will play the winner between No. 4 Wahconah and No. 13 Pioneer Regional.
Abby Coleman made 12 saves for the Eagles, who finished the season 8-8-3.