SOUTH HADLEY – Hannah Haesaert’s hat trick helped the South Hadley girls soccer team take down West Bridgewater, 4-1, during its Round of 16 win in the Division 4 MIAA state tournament on Friday night.

The Tigers’ freshman forward scored twice in the first half, before adding another in the final 40 minutes, to send seventh-seeded South Hadley to the Round of 8.

“Hannah's a freshman, huge spotlight for her, she really focused today on putting the ball in the net,” Tigers coach Rich Marjanski said. “Got our first goal, got us started, and she just looked great out there, working back for the ball and most importantly finishing, she looked great.”

Haesaert put South Hadley ahead, 1-0, after Katherine McArdle found the speedy underclassman with space during the eighth minute. Haesaert’s second strike came with less than two minutes to go in the first half, following a smart through ball from Allison Fleury. The play started with a Tigers goal kick that went straight to Fleury at midfield, before the junior hit Haesaert with a perfect pass right into the box, to make it 3-0 South Hadley.

“Mostly, the goalie passes out and then we build up,” Haesaert said. “I think sending up the ball is a better option when the other team is pressuring us."

Following a goal from West Bridgewater’s Kylie Fuller during the latter stages of the second half to get within 3-1, Haesaert completed the hat trick with an impressive kick that floated into the top right corner of the net. As the Tigers had done all contest, they moved the ball up field with purpose once again and Haesaert capitalized for her third of the night with less than 10 minutes remaining in the game.

“I think the defense did really good at building up the ball and switching the ball to the other field, especially the center-backs,” Haesaert said.

Emma Levreault also scored for the Tigers, their second of the game, after the senior got a feed from Cianna Gurek and approached the No. 10 Wildcats’ net with little pressure, before finding the back of the net at 26:40 of the first half.

Highlighted by Haesaert’s big night, South Hadley’s offense looked confident throughout the 80-minute affair as they pressured West Bridgewater’s end, seemingly all game.

“We talked about before the game how we really didn't put that many shots on net [Wednesday in the Round of 32],” Marjanski said. “We missed a bunch of stuff, left, right, over, so we wanted to make sure the goalie got some work in. Obviously, you have a better chance if you're putting the ball in the frame then not hitting the net at all. We focused a lot on shooting coming into this game and finishing and it really paid off.”

The Tigers beat Monomoy, 2-0, Wednesday in the Round of 32.

While South Hadley controlled much of the play, when the Wildcats did get chances on offense, the Tigers defensive group snuffed most of them out before they could develop.

“I knew West Bridgewater was very offensive and I knew that they could score a lot of goals, they scored five goals in their last game,” Marjanski said. “They've been putting up a lot of goals and we actually saw this team last year. They were up 2-0 on us last year. I knew that they had some very offensive players, so we focused defensively on stopping [Fuller]. Very quick player, very good player and making sure that everything is kept in front of us.”

The Tigers will play the winner of Saturday’s game between No. 2 Hamilton-Wenham and No. 18 Ipswich in the Round of 8 next week at a date and time to be determined.

Div. 5 Round of 16

No. 4 Georgetown 4, No. 20 Granby 0 – The Rams’ stellar state tournament run came to an end on the road in Georgetown on Friday night.

The Royals (11-6-3) scored a 4-0 victory in the Round of 16, advancing to the state quarterfinals where they’ll host No. 5 Maynard on Wednesday.

Granby finished its season 9-11 overall, Western Mass. Class D champions.

Girls volleyball

Div. 4 quarterfinals

No. 3 Joseph Case 3, No. 6 Frontier 0 – Tensions were high, the crowd was loud and both teams were scrambling proficiently in a wild opening set during Friday’s MIAA Division 4 Girls Volleyball quarterfinal match.

Neither team backed down as action went in extra time, with both squads looking to make their mark early. The host Cardinals held on however, taking the early momentum and not giving it back. Case ultimately notched a 3-0 sweep, advancing to the Final Four in Swansea.

Set scores were 29-27, 25-20, 25-13.

Frontier finished it season 16-7 overall, while Case (20-5) advanced to play No. 2 Ipswich in the state semifinals.

“I am sad that our season has to come to an end but these girls fought hard for every last point tonight,” Redhawks coach Courtney Parent said. “They left it all on the floor and I couldn’t be more proud of how hard we fought tonight and all season.

It was a whopper of an opening set between the two well-acquainted rivals, which have played numerous times in the state tournament over the past two decades. Frontier trailed 22-20 before Greta Hale and Abigail Hernandez came through with back-to-back kills to pull even.

Case had several set point opportunities but the Redhawks scrambled well, using two kills from Olivia Machon in crunch time to stay alive. Machon’s kill tied the set at 27-27, but Case answered with a kill and took advantage of a Frontier hitting error to survive for a 29-27 victory.

After the tight opening-set win, Case jumped ahead quickly in the second frame to build a 13-6 advantage. That lea d grew to 20-10, and it appeared as though the Cardinals were going to cruise to a commanding win. Frontier rallied however, winning 10 of the next 14 points to get within 24-20 on a Hernandez kill. But Case closed the door from there, putting down a kill on game point for a 25-20 victory and a 2-0 set lead.

The third set was tied 10-10 before Case ripped off nine straight points to snag control, ultimately finishing off the sweep via a 25-13 win.

Hernandez finished with nine kills and 11 digs, Caitlin Maio put down eight kills, Greta Hale had six kills and two aces, Machon recorded four kills, three aces and 13 digs, Parrish Stilla dished 27 assists while Hannah Davis made 25 disg for the Redhawks.