It’s all been building to this for the Greenfield High School girls basketball team.
Since Raegan Hickey and Samantha Smith joined the team as eighth-graders, the Green Wave girls have had their eyes on a western Mass. championship and with those two now wrapping up their senior seasons, the expectations are to bring home the school’s first-ever title in girls hoop.
On Saturday, Greenfield learned that it will begin its title quest as the fourth seeds in the 10-team WMass Division 3 field, which earned the Wave a bye into Friday night’s quarterfinal round. The Green Wave (17-3) will begin its tournament journey against the team that ended it one season ago when it welcomes fifth-seeded Hampshire Regional High School (10-10) into Nichols Gymnasium at 7 p.m.
Greenfield is one of five local teams to qualify for the girls postseason. Mahar Regional School (12-8) and Frontier Regional School (10-10) picked up the final two seeds in the Division 3 bracket, while Pioneer Valley Regional School (12-8) and Franklin County Technical school (11-9) earned the ninth and 15th seeds respectively in the Division 4 bracket.
Green Wave coach John Hickey said that the time is now for his team, which has done progressively better each season since his daughter Raegan and Smith began their recent string of success with the team.
“This is the year. We’ve been building up to this,” he began. “These girls have playoff experience in other sports. They’ve been there before. Basically, the message to the team now is, ‘Don’t beat yourselves. Do the right things and if you play your game, things will take its course.’”
Greenfield made Curry Hicks Cage for the first time in program history last winter when, as the fifth seeds, it faced top-seeded Hampshire in the WMass Division 3 semifinals for a memorable game that saw the Green Wave come out on the wrong end of a 63-59 score in overtime. Hampshire then went on to defeat Wahconah in the WMass finals. While Greenfield has many of its key players back, including top scorers Hickey, Smith and Katie Haselton, the Raiders will be without some of their top players from a season ago, including Katelyn Pickunka, who scored a team-high 26 points in the win over the Wave, and Caroline O’Connor who had a big fourth-quarter and overtime against the Wave en route to 11 points. Still, Hampshire won’t be an easy first opponent.
“There are no easy games this time of year, and to move on they have to win,” he said. “I think they are looking forward to a chance to get a little revenge.”
If Greenfield wins on Friday and things play out according to seeds, it would mean the Wave would match up with top-seeded South Hadley (15-5) in the semifinals at Curry Hicks Cage. The two teams already met once this season back in December at the Hoosac Valley Tournament, where the Wave defeated the Tigers, 49-33. A win there would send the Wave to the finals where it would likely face either second-seeded Hoosac Valley (16-4) or third-seeded Wahconah (18-2).
Mahar (12-8) earned the ninth seed in the Division 3 field and will travel to North Adams Tuesday at 7 to face eighth-seeded Drury (12-8) and their top-scoring threat Brooke DiGennaro. Frontier (10-10), meanwhile, earned the 10th seed and will travel to Springfield to face seventh-seeded Sabis (10-10) Tuesday at 7.
Pioneer (12-8) picked up the ninth seed in the 17-team Division 4 field and heads to Springfield, Tuesday at 7 to face eighth-seeded Pope Francis (12-8). Pioneer coach Meg Burrington said she was a bit disappointed to not get a home game, but that the seeds were a reflection of her team’s season.
“We’re disappointed we didn’t get a home game, but we lost some crucial games that would have earned that for us, so we got what we earned,” she said.
Pioneer and Pope Francis met in the regular season and Pope Francis edged the Panthers in overtime, 61-58.
“If you score 58 points, you are supposed to win in girls basketball,” Burrington joked. “The girls are optimistic because we know we can beat quite a few teams that are seeded ahead of us.”
Pioneer is red-hot entering the tournament, having won five of six games, including wins over second-seeded Ware (16-4) on the road, and seventh-seeded Putnam (13-7) in its final two games. If the Panthers can get past Pope Francis, it would set up a quarterfinal against top-seeded Monson (13-7).
Franklin Tech (11-9) earned the 15th seed and will travel to Ware, Tuesday night at 7.
For a complete look at the brackets, see the Scoreboard on Page B2.