It was a night to remember for the Turners Falls High School volleyball team.
The Powertown secured an outright Northern Division title on Senior Night, sweeping second-place Mohawk Trail Regional High School, 25-12, 25-17, 25-19, Tuesday in Turners Falls.
Turners (16-3, 9-0), which closes out its regular-season Thursday at Greenfield High School, clinched sole possession of the Northern Division.
“I’m proud of the way that the girls have played so far this season,” explained Turners coach Kelly Liimatainen. “We’ve been working hard and they’ve fought hard all season long to get to this point.”
Sienna Dillensneider registered 18 assists to go with five digs and three aces, while Chloe Ellis had five kills and three aces for Turners. Ella Miner (three assists, two kills, one ace), Abby Loynd (six kills, four aces), Adrianna DiMaio (two aces, three digs), Skylar Thompson (three kills, one block) and Taylor Murphy (seven kills, two aces) all contributed in the win.
Mohawk (9-8, 6-3), which has already qualified for the postseason, was paced by Lexi Mazza’s eight kills, 13 digs and two blocks. Gabby Shean added two blocks, a kill and three digs, while Ashley Reynolds (15 assists, eight digs), Kayla Martin (three kills, three digs) and Kylie Lowell (three kills, four digs) were other top performers for the Warriors.
Athol 3, Pioneer 0 — Julia Ramos dished out 10 assists to go with six aces and three kills, and visiting Athol High School picked up a much-needed 25-23, 25-16, 25-18 sweep of Pioneer Valley Regional School in a Northern Division girls’ volleyball match Tuesday night in Northfield.
The win puts Athol at 9-9 overall (4-5 North), meaning the Red Raiders need to win one of their final two matches to qualify for the WMass Div. III Tournament. The squad closes out its regular-season slate with matches against Mohawk on Thursday and Ware High School on Friday.
Hannah Lajoie put down four kills in the win for Athol, while Paige Truehart had three kills and four aces. Abbe Roberts added three kills and two aces, while teammate Katelyn Mahan tossed in two kills and a pair of aces.
Pioneer (1-16, 1-8) closes out its schedule Thursday when it hosts Mahar Regional School.
Mahar 3, Greenfield 1 — Despite a hard-charging effort from Greenfield High School in the third set, visiting Mahar Regional School was able to hang on for a 25-14, 25-23, 25-27, 25-18 win Tuesday night in a Northern Division volleyball match in Greenfield.
Maeve Powell finish in double figures with 11 kills for Mahar (12-6, 6-3), while Sophia Smith (four kills) and Jordyn Berry (three kills) also helped the offensive effort on the night. Setter Aria Flematti notched 15 assists in the win.
The Senators used 23 aces to get by Greenfield. Powell, Ava Santana and Carissa Johnson had five aces each, while Flematti had four and Lauren Henne added a pair.
Ravin Graves and Casey Noyes had nine kills apiece for Greenfield (1-14, 1-8), while Graves added six aces and Noyes notched 15 digs. Hannah Mailloux notched six kills and Lexxie Rowell tossed in seven aces along with 11 assists.
Mahar has Pioneer and High School of Commerce still on the schedule, while Greenfield closes out with Turners Falls on Thursday.
Frontier Regional School finished eighth as a team, accumulating a total of 393 at the Western Mass. Division II Tournament held Tuesday at Cranwell Resort, Spa and Golf Club in Lenox.
Southwick Regional High School captured the championship with a total of 334, two shots clear of runner-up South Hadley High School (336).
Wahconah Regional High School’s Nate Dos Santos was the individual champion after firing a 75. South Hadley’s Jake Allard and Southwick’s James Longhi were the runners-up at 79.
Leading the way for Frontier was freshman Mikey Corduff, who tied for ninth place overall with a round of 86.
Next came Bryan Baumann, who tied for 25th overall after firing a round of 96. Brother Kevin Baumann tied for 41st with a 104, while teammates Rowan Blair (107), Porter Clancy (108) and Kalen Evans (109) rounded out the Frontier contingent that competed in Lenox.
Frontier 3, Athol 0 — It took 75 minutes, but Natalie Denkiewicz scored with the final minutes ticking away and Frontier Regional School tacked on two more quick tallies for good measure en route to a 3-0 shutout of Athol High School in a Pioneer North girls’ soccer game Tuesday night at O’Brien Field in Athol.
The game was scoreless until Kaitlyn Mackin popped a pass to Denkiewicz with just five minutes remaining in regulation. The sophomore broke a scoreless tie with the tally, and then added her second of the game just two minutes later to make it 2-0.
Cambrie Hamilton, who assisted on the second goal, tacked on another insurance goal just moments later, and Frontier (11-2-2, 7-2-2) grabbed the key road victory.
“I felt like our possession game was good, we just couldn’t get those final passes down for the majority of the night,” offered Frontier coach Phil Pittelli. “After Natalie got that goal, everyone was able to calm down.”
Frontier now sets its sights to a huge game Thursday when it hosts Hopkins Academy in a battle of top Pioneer North teams.
Athol (6-9-1, 2-8-1), which was officially eliminated from postseason contention with the loss, visits Narragansett Regional High School tonight at 5.
McCann Tech 3, Greenfield 0 — Visiting McCann Technical School broke a scoreless game open with three goals in the second half, and the Hornets picked up a 3-0 victory over Greenfield High School in a rain-soaked Pioneer South girls’ soccer game Tuesday in Greenfield.
“Seeing 35 girls playing their hearts out in the torrential rain — on teams that are a combined 1-24 — is a great reminder of how much fun kids have just playing the game,” lauded Greenfield coach Patrick Garland. “It was sloppy, ugly, and a ton of fun.”
Dana Canales got the scoring started for McCann (2-12, 2-8) with 13 minutes remaining in regulation, while Aimee Dowling and Natalie Diesz scored late in regulation to account for the 3-0 final.
Greenfield hosts Mohawk Trail Regional High School tonight at 6 p.m.
Palmer 4, Mahar 1 — Jack Temple scored his team’s lone goal of the game as Mahar Regional School dropped a 4-1 decision to Palmer High School in an independent boys’ soccer game Tuesday in Palmer.
Temple scored in the first half for the Senators (9-5-3), which trailed 3-1 at halftime.
Palmer (4-8-4) received goals from Jake Chartier, Diego Leecock, Emerson Duran and Andrew McDonald in the victory.
Alex Gurganus recorded six saves in the Mahar net, while Evan Smith made five saves to earn the win for Palmer.
The Senators close out the regular-season slate Friday when they travel to rival Athol High School.
Charlemont 3, Dublin 2 – In a rainy River Valley Athletic League quarterfinal game on Tuesday, The Academy at Charlemont defeated the Dublin School, 3-2, thanks to an overtime goal from Hendrik Pepermans.
The tally was the second of the afternoon for Pepermans, while Nat Boyd-Owens also tallied in the win for Charlemont. Tucker Zakon-Anderson assisted on all three goals.
Jaromil T., Winston Posner, Sam Rancourt and Liam Fisher had strong games defensively in front of Kyle Nitzsche’s impressive afternoon in goal.
Mahar 15, FC Tech 50
Smith Voke 28, Mahar 28
Mahar 23, Pioneer 34
Pioneer 15, FC Tech 50 — Franklin County Technical School’s Sohan Tyner captured the top spot by over a minute, crossing first overall with a time of 18 minutes, 27 seconds in a multi-team cross-country event run Tuesday in the rain in Northampton.
Thor Mead of Mahar Regional School was the runner-up in 19:44, while Sebastian Shaw was third overall in 19:50.
Tech’s Martin Given finished fourth to put two Eagles in the top four at 20:14.
Alex Wahlstrom of Pioneer Valley Regional School claimed 10th overall to power his team, traversing the course in 21:28. Gavin Curtis was 13th overall for the Panthers in 22:25.
Pioneer 15, Mahar 50
Pioneer 15, FC Tech 50 — Shey-Anne Gadwah-Alonso captured an individual victory, as the Mahar Regional School standout crossed the line in 23:55 to lead her team in a girls’ cross-country meet Tuesday in Northampton.
Chloe Cutting led Pioneer to a sweep of local teams Mahar and Franklin County Technical School on the strength of a third-place finish in 27:04.
Bridget Kenney (fifth, 27:24), Lucy Koester (sixth, 27:51) and Gracie Rosenberg (seventh, 28:15) all finished less than a minute apart to help pace the Panthers.