SOUTH DEERFIELD — The Frontier volleyball team hasn’t made life easy for teams in the Eastern Division the last two years.
The Redhawks went 7-1 in league play a season ago, sharing the title with Westfield. Frontier was determined to make sure it wouldn’t be splitting the title with anyone this year, but to do so, needed a win over Amherst on Thursday at Goodnow Gymasium. The Hurricanes fell to the Redhawks 3-1 earlier in the season for their lone league loss and needed a win to be able to potentially force a tie at the top of the standings.
Frontier didn’t let that happen. The Redhawks were pushed, as expected, but held on 3-2 in a wild five-set marathon to finish the season unbeaten in league play and take home the Eastern Division championship.
Set scores were 21-25, 25-19, 25-19, 20-25, 15-10.
“It was a really good match between two good teams,” Frontier coach Sean MacDonald said. “Our league is tough. I love being in our league. No disrespect to the old league but this one is tougher and it’s good for us. You have to show up every time. Amherst is always good. Having Amalia Martin and Audrey Bowen come back from the ACL certainly helps.”
Despite the loss, Hurricane coach Kacey Schmitt was pleased with the fight her team showed.
“This was as good of a match as you could ask for,” Schmitt said. “It was hard fought on both sides. It went back-and-forth the whole way. It’s the way you want volleyball to be played.”
Amherst started the match on fire, but Frontier stormed back to tie the first set, 20-20. The Hurricanes went on to score the five of the next six points however, earning a 25-21 set win to take a 1-0 lead.
Frontier bounced back in the second set. Jillian Apanell put down a pair of kills and Sydney Scanlon recorded two aces as the Redhawks built an 11-3 lead.
Amherst worked its way back in the game, getting the lead down to 20-16 following a Shannon Klaes kill, but Frontier closed out the set to earn a 25-19 win and tie things up, 1-1.
The all important third set was tight early, with the Hurricanes taking a 16-13 lead following a pair of Amalia Martin kills.
The Redhawks (15-0, 8-0) took over after that. Frontier scored 12 of the final 15 points in the set, capping it off with a Gabby Adams kill and a Caroline Deane ace to go up 2-1 with a 25-19 set win.
Amherst (14-2, 4-2) wasn’t done there, though. The Hurricanes took an early lead in the fourth set and didn’t relinquish it, with Martin putting down three kills and Ruby Austin adding three more as Amherst forced a decisive fifth set with a 25-20 win.
Amherst stormed out to a quick 5-2 lead in the final frame, with an Audrey Bowen block creating a quick three-point cushion in the race to 15.
Frontier scored three straight to tie it, and Deane’s cross-court kill eventually put the hosts up 8-7.
After the teams switched sides, a net violation against Amherst and a Deane ace extended the lead to 10-7. Frontier snatched control, and Deane put down the title-sealing kill for a 15-10 victory.
Deane paced the Redhawks with 20 kills, with Eve Dougan adding 10 kills, Gabby Adams recording six kills and four aces while Scanlon had 41 assists and four aces in the win.
MacDonald hopes a win like this can be something the Redhawks look back on during the postseason when the going gets tough to show they can fight their way out of deficits.
“This is good for the playoffs,” MacDonald said. “When you get into the playoffs, you never seem to rise to the occasion. You tend to sink a little because it’s so stressful. It felt like this match. It feels like you’re driving with the breaks on and you just get going and you stop yourself or they make a good play. This is what the playoffs are going to feel like when we hit the right teams. It’s good that we did this, we survived it and we’re league champs. You put it in the memory bank for when we get into this situation, we know we can do it.”
Martin finished with 18 kills, three aces and 17 assists, Annabel Ogden recorded 23 assists, Audrey Bowen smashed seven kills and Austin had five aces and four kills in the loss.
“I told them after the game the passion and teamwork they showed, the hustle and never giving up and Frontier never going on a big run was what we wanted,” Schmitt said. “In volleyball you can bend but you can’t break. We never broke tonight.”