ATHOL — The Athol boys volleyball team strung together wins in the first two sets against Sabis International. But then the Red Raiders got long on the return and hit more balls out of bounds. The Bulldogs also tightened up around the net, leading to three straight wins and a 3-2 win for Sabis, Monday night.
“It’s just hard,” Athol coach Sean MacDonald said. “I feel like if we cleaned up a couple of things, we’ve could have done it. We certainly could have done it. They’re a good team and they played hard. I really don’t feel like we played bad. I feel like (Sabis) played a little bit better.”
The teams were tied 5-5 to begin the pivotal Game 5. The Red Raiders (8-4) scored on an unreturnable hit into the Bulldogs’ court to take the lead, but Sabis responded with two spikes and Athol’s Colby Mason had a long spike go out of bounds as the Bulldogs led 8-6. A serving error and hitting error by the Bulldogs allowed Athol to tie the game at 8-8.
Tied at nine, the Red Raiders allowed four straight points — one on an errant serve and three on hits that went long and out of bounds — to give the Bulldogs a 13-9 lead. A Bulldog spike that went out of bounds cut Athol’s deficit to 14-12, but a spike by Aaron Williams into the back-right corner of Athol’s court gave the Bulldogs the 15-12 win.
“I don’t know, some of that’s just volleyball,” MacDonald said. “Some of it’s, you know, when you feel like a little bit of panic. We had some plays with some good hustle to the ball and we would hit it into the net. It’s just hard.”
The Red Raiders led by as much as eight and won Game 1, 25-16. Down 18-16 in Game 2, the Red Raiders outscored Sabis 9-3 to take win 25-21.
Momentum shifted in favor of the Bulldogs in the third set.
Tied 9-9, the Bulldogs outscored Athol 10-5 to go up 19-14. The two teams traded points until a miss-hit by Athol’s Justin Blake allowed the Bulldogs to take a 23-18 lead on an unreturnable volley. A spike from Mason cut Athol’s deficit to 23-19, but a hitting error by Colby Soltysik and an unreturnable tip at the net gave Sabis the 25-19 win.
The Bulldogs continued to play well at the net in Game 4. A tip at the net fell into the Red Raiders’ court for a 12-9 Bulldogs lead. After Athol took a 14-13 lead, an errant serve and errant hit into the net gave Sabis a 15-14 lead. A block fell into the Red Raiders’ court to give Sabis the 16-14 lead.
“We struggled a little bit with our blocking,” said MacDonald. “Our blocking has been really good the last couple of matches and we didn’t block very well today. It was just really close and when you get into a match like this, it doesn’t take much to swing the outcome.”
The Red Raiders took a 17-16 lead on a serve by Soltysik that the Bulldogs failed to return over the net. A tip at the net on the next point tied the game at 17 and sparked a 9-1 run by Sabis to take Game 4, 25-18.
“It’s a mental game, but I didn’t really feel like there was that much of a breakdown,” said MacDonald about dropping the final three games. “I feel like, if there’s anything, when we started to get rolling in Sets 3 and 4, we would slam on our own breaks. I think the difference between Set 1 and 2 was, we were able to string some points together. That didn’t really happen much after sets one and two.”
Blake led the team with 18 kills, while Nick Casella added 12 kills. Mason had nine kills and Jordan Carrasquillo six. Carrasquillo also added six aces, while Soltysik had 40 assists.