ATHOL — Playing a brutal regular-season schedule is already paying postseason dividends for Frontier Regional School.
The sixth-seeded Red Hawks won their second straight postseason match and kept the drive for a dozen consecutive titles alive with a 25-17, 17-25, 25-17, 25-21 victory over third-seeded Athol High School in the Western Massachusetts Division III Girls’ Volleyball Tournament quarterfinals Monday night at Mallet Gymnasium.
The Red Hawks had already struggled in the first set and gave away an early lead in the second set to head to set 3 tied 1-1.
Hope Parker had served Athol to a 4-0 lead in the third set and it appeared that the Red Raiders could have Frontier’s proverbial number, but the Red Hawks responded with a rally from 5-1 down.
Selayna Bathurst reeled off three of her team-leading 14 kills during the following rally, and Ela Deane’s service ace gave the Red Hawks their first lead of the set, 9-8.
After an exchange of points, Lauren Davenport served for three straight points to extend the lead to 13-10, and Athol never got closer than three points for the remainder of the set, that coming at 20-17 before a two-hits violation gave Frontier the ball with a four-point lead. Then Grace Randall served out the set with kills from Davenport and Penelope Hosley. Randall finished off the set with one of her team-high six aces.
Athol (17-4) bolted to out to a 12-4 lead behind three aces from Jess Soucie, solid defense from Abby Leadbetter and Parker’s all-around stellar effort. But a Davenport kill stopped the run.
The Red Hawks began to rally methodically behind the net play of Davenport (11 kills, 12 digs, 2 aces), Hailey Orloski (3 kills, 5 digs) and Hosley (5 kills, 4 digs) to eventually grab an 18-17 lead on an ace from Sarah Zoly (2 aces, 6 digs) — a lead that Frontier would not relinquish.
Deane — who racked up 39 assists, 8 digs and 3 aces — closed out the match with an ace.
“I was proud of the girls. This was a real gut-check,” offered Red Hawks head coach Sean MacDonald. “We had a rough start, then a rough second set, but I liked the response in the third set, and being down 8 in the fourth set, to come back like that was great.
“I’ve got to credit Athol, they fought hard and had a great season, and they gave us everything we could handle.”
Interestingly, Frontier trailed early in all three sets it won, including 3-0 in the opening set behind two aces from Parker.
The Red Hawks used Davenport’s net presence and Deane’s serving to take a 6-5 lead. Then after Athol quickly regained the advantage, Frontier battled back again and went up 10-9 before slowing pulling away behind Hosley and Orloski’s serving, and some timely defense. Frontier wrapped up the set on three Athol unforced errors.
Athol bounced back in the second set after falling behind 5-1, mainly from the nonstop work of Parker, strong serving from Julia Ramos and a stretch of inconsistent play from the young Red Hawks, who have no seniors.
Once the Red Raiders took the lead at 6-5, they never gave it back.
Ramos and Hannah Arsenualt fired home two aces apiece, and Parker dominated at the net to help give Athol the win and tie the match heading to the pivotal third set.
Frontier (9-11) advances to a tough semifinal matchup Wednesday night at No. 2 seed Mt. Greylock Regional School at 6:30 p.m.
“(Greylock) is gonna pose a tough challenge,” said MacDonald. “They have a 6-foot-4 middle (hitter), and she’s gonna be tough to stop.”