WEST SPRINGFIELD – The Frontier volleyball team’s Western Mass. championship streak is now older than many of the players who helped win the program’s most recent title on Saturday.
The top-seeded Redhawks cruised to a remarkable 16th consecutive sectional title, sweeping No. 3 Southwick 25-14, 25-15, 25-12 in the Class C final at West Springfield High School.
Frontier (17-4) hasn’t lost a Western Mass. final since 2004, the program’s first appearance there under head coach Sean MacDonald.
“The years and years of hard work, every generation puts in the same amount of hard work to get here,” began junior Jillian Apanell, who finished with a team-high 12 kills. “Everyone starts at zero. It is really unfortunate that we feel so much pressure to continue the legacy and stuff like that, but it’s also really a good goal that we set for ourselves each season. We want to continue this… obviously we don’t want to be the team that loses. But we try and frame it like, this is a new goal every year. We want to win the Western Mass. championship. So it’s fun to chase that goal.”
After missing out on a chance to continue the streak a year ago due to COVID-19, MacDonald said he was happy for what is largely a new crop of players to get their shot at winning a WMass title.
“These guys, a lot of them haven’t played in a tournament game in two years,” MacDonald said. “It’s a big deal for them. They certainly have earned their way here and I’m proud of them.”
Some of that pressure to continue the championship streak reared its head in the second set. Locked in a 9-9 tie with the Rams (17-4) and looking a bit out of sorts, MacDonald called timeout to settle his troops.
“We were really struggling with serve receive,” admitted Apanell. “Sean just kind of told us to get a side out right then so we could get our serving back going because our serving is one of the best components on this team. We knew we’d be OK if we could get our serve back going.”
MacDonald said the message in the huddle was simple.
“Let’s get back to being us,” he recalled. “We look a little tentative. They’re telling me they’re nervous. I feel like, we probably shouldn’t be, but I forget I’ve been here a lot but they haven’t been here a lot. And they’re really nervous about breaking a really long streak that started before some of them were even alive. It’s an unfair burden, but they have it. They shouldn’t, but they do.”
Frontier responded with a 6-1 run out of the timeout, including three straight aces from Eve Dougan at the service line.
Setter Sydney Scanlon (19 assists) served out the frame for the Hawks, reeling off seven straight points with help from Apanell, who put down three kills in the process, for a 25-15 win that took the life out of the Southwick bench.
“We’ve got some good servers when we can string them together,” MacDonald said.
That serving prowess was on display in the third set. Runs from Lilah Evans (seven total aces) and Caroline Deane (six) helped keep the Rams at arm’s length, and Frontier was never really threatened en route to the 25-12 victory that clinched another 3-0 sweep. The club won all three of their Class C tourney matches via 3-0 margins.
Now Frontier can put all of its focus on the impending state tournament, with seeds and brackets expected to be released on Monday. In the most recent MIAA Power Rankings, the Redhawks sat at No. 2 in Division 5, though their strength of opponents’ number took a hit with their Western Mass. tournament run. A top four seed would secure home court advantage until the semifinals.
“I’m so excited for the state tournament,” Apanell said. “I think it’s just cool, we have no idea what we’re in for. We have no idea who we’re going to be playing, when we’re going to be playing… are we going to travel to Cape Cod on a school night? It’s only going to get tougher from here so it’s going to be really fun to jump into that and see what we can do.”