TURNERS FALLS — An emphatic spike from Madison Liimatainen on Friday night set the tone at the end of the first set, as she and the Turners Falls volleyball team stormed over visiting Lee to set up a meeting with top-seeded Mount Greylock in Sunday’s Western Mass. Class D final.
In a 3-0 sweep, second-seeded Turners Falls quickly dispatched No. 3 Lee, 25-18, 25-9, 25-15, in the Class D semifinals. Turners Falls was led by Liimatainen’s 6 aces and 16 kills, Taylor Greene’s 21 assists and three aces and Abbi Holloway’s five kills.
“I thought we came out to play … came out swinging,” said Turners Falls head coach Kelly Liimatainen. “My main goal from the get-go is we can’t do anything without a pass. We need to pass the ball well and if we pass the ball well, things will fall into place.”
The Thunder and Wildcats battled through the first half of the first set, trading points until Turners Falls built up momentum with a 17-10 lead, forcing a Wildcat timeout. The stop in play did little to stall the Thunder’s momentum, with Liimatainen racking up several kills before delivering the final blow to close out the set, 25-18.
“She played great,” Kelly Liimatainen said of Madison’s performance. “She couldn’t have gotten a good kill if we didn’t have a pass and if Taylor didn’t get the ball up. Good team effort.”
The Thunder kept rolling into the second set, jumping out to a 13-4 lead with several players chipping in kills. Another Wildcat timeout did little to stem the tide, with back-to-back Liimatainen spikes and a Greene ace closing out the second set, 25-9.
Lee battled early in the third set, but was eventually overwhelmed by the relentless Thunder, as Turners Falls closed out the match 25-15 to set up a battle with the No. 1 Mount Greylock at West Springfield High School on Sunday at noon.
“They’re going to be a tough team,” Liimatainen said. “Just come ready to play.”
Mount Greylock 3, Mohawk Trail 0 — Fourth-seeded Mohawk Trail battled on the road against powerhouse Mount Greylock, but the top-seeded Mounties punched their ticket to Sunday’s Class D final thanks to a 25-9, 25-13, 25-15 semifinal sweep on Friday in Williamstown.
The Warriors finished their regular season 10-7 overall, and now await their seeding and matchup for next week’s MIAA Division 5 state tournament.
Mohawk Trail’s Palmer King paced the defensive effort with seven digs, while Adrian Grant added three digs and Riley Giard tossed in a pair.
Hannah Plesnar and Maddie Lamorie put down two kills apiece for the Warriors.
Class C semis
Frontier 3, Southwick 0 — A dominant effort lifted the top-seeded Redhawks into the Class C championship game, where they’ll go for a 17th consecutive sectional title on Sunday.
Frontier swept No. 4 Southwick, 25-8, 25-20, 25-11, in the semifinal round on Friday night at Goodnow Gymnasium, setting up a title-game matchup with No. 2 Easthampton. That tilt is set for noon at Chicopee Comp.
Frontier (19-1) received a team-high seven kills from Eve Dougan, while Caroline Deane followed with five kills and Abi Hernandez and Kate DeMaio each put down three kills in the victory. Seventeen different players saw time in the semifinal win.
Allie Pierce (11 assists) and Sydney Scanlon (10) both posted double-digit passing efforts, while Frontier registered 24 aces as a team. Sam Baker (6 aces), Deane (5) and Dougan (5) were the top performers from the service line.
Girls volleyball
FC Tech 3, SICS 1 — Lea Chapman put down a team-high 11 kills, and the Eagles shook off an opening-set defeat to notch a 20-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-22 win over SICS on Friday in a non-playoff match.
The Eagles will host Norfolk Aggie on Saturday in the state vocational tournament semifinals (2 p.m.) before competing in next week’s MIAA Division 5 tourney.
Chapman also added five aces, four digs and three blocks for Franklin Tech (13-7), while Lillian Poirier added nine digs, eight assists and two kills. Other key contributors in Friday’s win were Faith Smith (5 aces, 9 kills, 3 digs, 5 blocks), Skylei LaPan (6 aces, 4 digs) and Shelby O’Leary (3 aces, 13 digs, 6 assists).
Lenox 3, Athol 0 — The Bears could have secured an automatic berth to the Division 5 state tournament with a win, but now must wait until the seeds are released next week to see if they’re dancing.
Host Lenox notched a 25-14, 25-23, 25-13 sweep in a non-playoff contest on Friday.
Laney Florentino paced Athol (9-11) with six kills, three aces and two blocks, while Alma White dished out eight assists. Olivia Mayer added three aces and five kills, while Alyssa Logan notched 11 digs.
Smith Voc 3, Greenfield 2 — Mackensie Goncalves put down a whopping 16 kills to go with three aces and two blocks, but the Green Wave fell just short in a wild five-setter against the Vikings on Friday.
Set scores were 25-15, 10-25, 14-25, 25-17, 15-11 in favor of Smith Voc.
Other big performers for Greenfield included Rachel Dodge (8 kills, 5 aces, 7 assists), Emerald Camero-Rivera (4 aces, 8 assists), Karisma Santana (5 aces, 1 block, 10 kills) and Lucy Karieva (2 kills, 4 assists, 3 digs).
Girls soccer
SICS 1, Greenfield 0 — Iyanna Hodge scored the game’s only goal with less than two minutes to play for the Bulldogs on Friday.
Greenfield goalie Makayla Valente made 16 saves in a standout effort between the pipes. The Green Wave finished their season 7-10-1 overall.
Boys soccer
Mahar 12, Greenfield 1 — Noah Rich netted a hat trick for his first career varsity goals as the Senators closed their season with a victory on Friday.
Matt Vitello, Will Barnes and Sam Connors also notched the first varsity goals of their careers for Mahar (6-10-2). Lucas Isrow added two goals and two assists in the win.