The Frontier boys volleyball team is still in its infancy, though coach Sean MacDonald noted a milestone reached in the team’s season finale will take a long time to break. 

The Redhawks began their boys program just four years ago and have had considerable success, winning a pair of Western Mass. titles and reaching the MIAA Div. 2 state tournament each season. 

A lot of that success can be attributed to Tavo Vincent-Warner. Vincent-Warner joined the team his freshman year — the first year Frontier had a program — and struck with it throughout his high school career. He quickly took up the setter position with the Redhawks and held that through this past season. Entering the MIAA Div. 2 state tournament, Vincent-Warner sat at 1,948 career assists and needed a few big matches to join Emily Woodward as the second Frontier volleyball player (and first boy) to eclipse 2,000 assists. 

Against Lynn Vocational in the preliminary round, Vincent-Warner distributed 37 assists in a 3-0 sweep which put him 15 shy of the 2,000 assist mark going into the Redhawks’ Round of 32 contest against Chicopee Comp on Saturday. 

It wasn’t going to be easy to get those 15 against a tough Colt squad but Vincent-Warner prevailed, finishing the match with 19 assists to hit the milestone. 

“Tavo and Will Reading were the last of our co-founders,” Frontier coach Sean MacDonald said, “the ones that saw we had a new team and gave it a try. Tavo started setting not day one but pretty early into his freshman year which freed up other guys to hit and pass more. It’s hard to get to [2,000 assists] unless you played four years and aren’t splitting setting duties with someone else. That’s what Tavo has been doing. He’s a great kid, a great teammate and a great captain. I’ve been here since 2003 and they used to play best of three [sets] so there were less games but we only have one other girls with all the good teams that has gotten over 2,000 which shows what kind of accomplishment this is.” 

MacDonald said he’s seen Vincent-Warner grow tremendously in his four years with the program. Playing volleyball for the first time as a freshman, Vincent-Warner had to learn the sport and the position along with the rest of his teammates. 

As the years have gone on, MacDonald said he’s become comfortable in what he’s doing and has turned into a leader on the team.

“He’s not a big guy but he’s quick and speedy,” MacDonald said. “He makes our passes look better sometimes by tracking them down and making passes from tough places on the court so we have a chance to score. He’s grown with confidence. He was a little too conservative with his setting choices instead of setting quick in the middle or overhead. Now he’s comfortable setting anywhere on the net. His leadership as well, he’s kind of a quiet guy so when he says something, he gets their attention.”

Like in basketball, you can’t get an assist without someone scoring on the other end. MacDonald noted that Vincent-Warner played with a lot of great players these past four years which has helped him reach a milestone that he doesn’t believe will be broken any time soon.

“How do you want to win your games?” MacDonald said. “The girls get a lot of aces so if you get an ace, you can’t get an assist. When we were playing Lynn, we knew Comp was going to be a tough game so we were trying to get the number as low as we could. You need people who can get kills and that’s certainly the guys we had this year, the Carey brothers the last few years, Jesse Kurkolonis, Brady Burch. Without those guys getting kills we don’t get assists and without someone passing them the ball, they don’t get kills. It’s obviously the boy record right now and I think it’s going to be there for a while.”