The stars have aligned for a potential fifth consecutive sectional final between Frontier Regional School and Lee High School.
Whether the bracket will cooperate is an entirely different story.
The 14-time defending WMass champion Red Hawks paced the local pack when the seeds were released on Tuesday for the upcoming Western Mass. Division 3 Girls Volleyball Tournament. Frontier picked up the No. 2 seed in the field after posting a 12-8 record, though two of those wins came against Nantucket and were not considered for seeding purposes.
Frontier earned one of two byes, along with No. 1 Lee (16-2), in the 14-team Division 3 bracket. The Red Hawks, which have won four straight championship matches against the Wildcats, including a 3-0 sweep a year ago, also earned a 3-0 win against Lee in a potential finals preview last week in South Deerfield. The bye has Frontier into the quarterfinal round, where it will open its postseason run with a home match on Monday night at 6:30 p.m. against the winner of No. 7 Easthampton and No. 10 Wahconah (Thursday night).
“Lee had a much better record, we had a much higher strength of schedule, but I’m not really surprised about getting the two-seed,” Frontier coach Sean MacDonald said. “I’m thankful that we’re No. 2 and get a little more practice in (with the bye) and we’re able to watch one of our opponents on Thursday night. We’re still trying to get better.”
While all eyes are on a potential fifth consecutive final between the two Division 3 powerhouses, MacDonald cautioned against using past results as an indication of future successes.
“We’ve lost eight matches this year so I don’t know if we’re exactly beaming with overconfidence right now,” he offered. “We know we have things we can still improve upon. We’ve talked about the teams in Division 3, if they’re having a really good night and we’re making errors, we can be in for a tough situation. Our girls respect our opponents and they know we have to play well to win this tournament. I’ll let others worry about history and how many times we’ve played Lee, how many times we’ve been to the finals, all that.”
Turners Falls went 13-7 during the regular season and won the Northern Division with a perfect 10-0 mark in league play. For their efforts, the Thunder were awarded the No. 6 seed in the Division 3 field, and they’ll open with a first-round match on Friday night against No. 11 Southwick (14-6), the champions of the Metro Division.
“It’s right around where we thought we were going to be, a 6 or 7 seed,” Turners Falls coach Kelly Liimatainen said. “We played a tough schedule during the season. We didn’t beat a lot of teams we needed to outside of league play, but we’ve played a lot of the top teams in the tournament already.”
Semifinalists a year ago, Turners was actually the last program to defeat Frontier in the sectional tournament. That came in the 2004 Division 3 final, marking the second of back-to-back WMass crowns for the program.
Should Turners get past Southwick, it would likely see familiar foe Lenox (15-4), the No. 3 seed, in the quarterfinals next week. The teams met in last year’s quarterfinal round, with Turners pulling out a 3-2 nail-biter. The teams also played a five-set match earlier this season, with the Millionaires rallying from a 2-0 deficit to pick up the victory.
“We definitely have our work cut out for us in the tournament,” said Liimatainen, whose team also played Lee and Frontier during the regular season. The squad went 3-7 during the independent portion of their slate.
Mahar Regional School rounds out the local tournament-bound teams, and the Senators are the No. 9 seed in the Division 3 field after sporting a 13-7 mark this fall. The Northern Division runners-up open their postseason with a first-round match on the road at No. 8 South Hadley (12-6), Thursday night at 6:30 p.m.
The teams met on Sept. 17, with the Tigers capturing a 3-0 sweep in their home gymnasium. The Sens will look to turn the tide after closing the regular season with four consecutive victories.
“I think we’re ready,” Mahar coach Sarah Woodward said. “We did not play well the first time we saw (South Hadley). It was probably one of our worst games of the year. But I think the team is happy that’s who we’re playing now, to get another shot at them. They were pretty hyped to find out.”
In last year’s tournament, Mahar beat Southwick to earn a spot in the quarterfinals before falling to Mount Greylock for the second consecutive year.
“I don’t have any seniors on the team so to have the season that we did with a lot of new pieces has been awesome,” Woodward said. “We’re just going to go out and play our best, see what happens.”
Perhaps the biggest unknown in the Division 3 field is fourth-seeded Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School of Chicopee, which makes its tournament debut after an 8-2 regular-season mark. The program mainly played teams from outside Western Mass. this season, and they’ll open with a first-round match against No. 13 Ware (12-8) on Friday night.