Frontier Regional School will have its work cut out if it expects to make it 12 consecutive western Mass. Division III girls’ volleyball titles.
The Red Hawks find themselves in unknown territory this season. The 11-time defending champions earned the sixth seed in the 11-team field when the seeds were announced Tuesday.
Lee High School picked up the top seed after an 18-2 campaign that included a five-set win over Frontier. Mt. Greylock Regional High School was No. 2.
Athol High School (17-3) earned the third seed and was the top local team in the field after it won the Northern Division title with an unbeaten divisional record. Athol lost to both Lee and Mt. Greylock this season, but will likely have to defeat one of the two if it is going to earn a title.
But before Athol plays either or both of those teams, it will likely have to face the 11-time defending champs from Frontier. Athol earned a first-round bye but will play the winner of the Frontier-Mohawk Trail Regional High School first-round match.
The Red Hawks (7-11) qualified for the tournament based on the 70-percent rule, which states that if a team plays in a league that mandates it plays 70 percent or more of its games against opponents in a higher division, that team can still qualify for the tournament by winning 50 percent of its games against teams in its division. Frontier had two Division III opponents this season, losing the five-setter to Lee, and defeating Southwick Tolland Regional High School on Monday to qualify.
The Red Hawks host the 11th-seeded Warriors Saturday at 3, and if Frontier gets past the Warriors (9-8), it will travel to Mallett Gymnasium in Athol to face the Red Raiders. That could determine which team is tops in Franklin County this season, and it assures the area of at least one semifinalist. Frontier coach Sean MacDonald said that he has been pleased with how well his team has been playing of late, and he is excited to see how they stack up against Division III opposition. He said that even if his team does not win its 12th WMass title, it would be fine, because with five juniors and the rest of the team being sophomores, he is simply looking for his team to continue to improve.
“In fairness, we have a streak right now that is impossible to maintain forever,” he began. “These girls are working really hard and I don’t worry about the streak as much as they probably do. I just want to try and get better every day and they have been.”
Turners Falls High School is the fourth and final area team to have qualified for the tournament. The Indians (10-10) earned the ninth seed and will travel to eighth-seeded Sabis International Thursday night at 6:30.