It’s amazing what a week can do for team’s confidence.
Frontier Regional School entered the Western Massachusetts Division III Volleyball Tournament with a 7-13 record, virtually no postseason experience and plenty of questions as it attempted to defend its title.
Fast forward to Saturday and the Red Hawks answered the biggest question facing them by knocking off top-seeded Lee High School in five sets to avenge an early-season defeat and win the program’s 12th consecutive WMass crown at the Holyoke Community College’s David M. Bartley Center.
Now they get to return to the Bartley Center on Wednesday to improve on that near-flawless record when they face Millbury High School in the semifinals of the MIAA State Division III Girls’ Volleyball Tournament.
Match time is scheduled for 5 p.m.
“We’re definitely looking forward to playing at HCC again,” said Frontier head coach Sean MacDonald. “It’s a place we know very well. It’s just nice that we don’t have go to a gym 100 miles away on a school night.”
The Red Hawks (11-13) now take on a relative newcomer in the Woolies (20-4), who make their first appearance in the states since 2012 under head coach Michael McKeon. Millbury has amassed a 78-35 record over the past five seasons.
This is also the first volleyball meeting between the schools.
The Woolies present an array of issues for Frontier to deal with , most notably from the service line — they’re serving at nearly a 90 percent success rate and average 12.6 aces per match.
They also possess a solid frontcourt and a quality setter in senior Cassandra Stockhouse, who quarterbacks Millbury’s 5-1 offense and has registered 455 assists. She has also served 39 aces.
Stockhouse will primarily set up the Woolies’ outside hitters, juniors Shai Anna Leao and Samantha Brady. Leao lead the team with 159 kills and also has 32 aces, while the 5-foot-9 Brady has 143 put-aways and is the team leader with 54 aces. Both players are juniors.
Millbury also had two quality middle hitters in junior Madison Plante (82 kills, 40 aces) and 5-10 senior Ariel Dubey (84 kills), and an up-and-coming opposite hitter in 5-10 freshman Morgan Cronan.
Their top defenders are senior libero Megan Lawson, (team-leading 150 digs) and senior defensive specialist Samantha Callejo.
Millbury has only been take to five sets twice all season, and has only gone beyond three sets on six other occasions. Frontier has rarely played short matches, so the longer it lasts the more it would seem to favor the Red Hawks.
After watching film on the Woolies, MacDonald knows they’re going to be a tough team to beat regardless of how many sets it goes.
“They’re a pretty good team and do some things like us in a lot of ways,” he said. “Their two outside hitters are good, they hit hard and they attack the gaps in the defense, especially the gaps in between the blockers. They’re gonna make you move to block and dig them.”
The Red Hawks will answer with a senior-less squad that’s playing more like one which, come this time next year, will have five seniors.
Captains Selayna Bathurst, Ella Deane and Grace Randall have led by example both on and off the court, but the Red Hawks’ recent play as a team would suggest a few different things: their record is arguably the most misleading statistic of the entire postseason in any sport, and this team is capable of advancing to its seventh consecutive state final.
Deane continues to impress with her setting, as evidenced by her 47-assist performance in the WMass final, while Bathurst (12 kills, 15 digs, 3 aces) and Randall (5 kills, 7 aces, 3 digs) are proving that their hard work has finally paid off. Lauren Davenport has brought her game up to another level after a match-high 22 against Lee, along with 13 digs and 4 aces, while Hailey Orloski (8 kills, 4 digs) puts up respectable numbers each night.
MacDonald also continues to get plenty of contributions from libero Bri Thurber (10 digs 4 assists), as well as Sarah Zoly (4 aces) Penelope Hosley, Ashley Telega and Olivia Deane.
Frontier’s ascension from inexperienced playoff team to sectional champion didn’t happen by accident — the Red Hawks have worked tirelessly and played all but two matches against Division II competition, facing some of the best teams in the state.
But what makes this run to the states even more impressive, according to MacDonald, is that his squad stayed together and kept their composure despite a 1-9 stretch that would have caused most teams to fold up the tent.
However, once they knocked off WMass Division II finalist Minnechaug and swept Southwick in the season finale to qualify for postseason play under the Sullivan Rule, everything started to come together.
At least 70 percent of Frontier’s schedule included opponents in a higher division, so it only needed a .500 record vs. Division III teams to qualify. The Southwick win gave Frontier a 1-1 record vs. D-III teams.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a team that’s made this much progress is such a short amount of time,” said MacDonald. “I have to give credit to the kids. It can be really demoralizing when you’re losing that much, but they had a forward thinking mindset and that really helped.
“It’s easy to see the end result, but it’s hard to say we did a lot of things better than we did three days ago,” he added. “It’s a nice time of the year to be playing your best volleyball, and they’re still learning. We learned a lot from that Lee match that we’ll be able to use (tonight).”