It was a winning start to the MIAA Division 5 state tournament for the Athol girls volleball team.
The 23rd-seeded Bears held on for a tight win in a decisive fourth set, capturing a 25-12, 22-25, 25-12, 28-26 victory over No. 42 Dearborn STEM Academy in a preliminary round contest Thursday night at Mallet Gymnasium in Athol.
Athol (8-12) will turn right around and travel to play at No. 10 Lenox in the Round of 32 on Friday night at 5:30 p.m.
Anna Duquette went for a team-high five kills to pace the Bears on Thursday, while Alma White put down four kills. Laney Florentino and Giana Vaillancourt went for three kills apiece to aid the offense, which received 10 assists from White and five from Vaillancourt.
Athol dominated from the service stripe, led by a whopping 15 aces from White. Vaillancourt tossed in seven aces as the Bears racked up 32 aces as a team in the win.
Cape Cod RVT 3, Mohawk Trail 0 — Cape Cod RVT, the No. 20 seed, won the opening set of the match and rode that momentum the rest of the way to upset the No. 13 Warriors 25-19, 25-16, 25-23 in the Round of 32 in Buckland Thursday.
Cape Cod (16-4) moves on to face the winner of No. 4 Baystate Academy and No. 29 Carver in the Round of 16.
Palmer King put down a team-high four kills and three aces while adding 10 assists for Mohawk Trail (12-6). Emma Canaday tallied five assists and three kills, Riley Giard and Maddie Cosentino each had three kills and Sophia Goodnow smashed two kills in the defeat.
Div. 5 prelims
Ware 4, Pioneer 0 — No. 17 Ware knocked off the No. 48 Panthers in the preliminary round of the MIAA Div. 5 tournament on Thursday night.
Ware advanced to face No. 16 Mahar in the Round of 32 on Monday at 6 p.m. in Orange.
Additional details were not available at press time.
Non-playoff
Drury 40, Greenfield 28 — The Green Wave passing game found a rhythm on Thursday at Vets Field, but the Blue Devils ran for three touchdowns in the first half, added two touchdowns on the ground in the second half and also tallied a pick-six to defeat Greenfield in a non-playoff game.
“We played well for two quarters,” Green Wave coach Mike Kuchieski said. “We competed hard but we didn’t tackle well.”
Greenfield quarterback Keagan Fisher threw for three touchdowns, two to Erik Martineau and one to Krish Patel.
“It was a good game,” Fisher said. “We fought hard. The first half was sloppy but we picked it up in the second half.”
Caelan Briggs and Hunter Marceau ran in touchdowns in the first quarter to give Drury a 14-0 lead. Fisher responded with a long pass to Jon Breor before connecting with Martineau for a 7-yard score, with Petru Cojocaru’s extra point cutting the lead to 14-7.
Drury’s Parker Smith ran in a score late with five minutes to go in the second quarter to give Drury a 20-7 lead at the half.
Fisher found Martineau for a touchdown with four minutes to go in the third, with Cojocaru’s extra point cutting the lead to 20-14. Following a change of possession Fisher was intercepted by Smith, who returned it untouched to the house to extend Drury’s lead to 26-14.
Greenfield kept it interesting, with running back Angel Politis taking a direct snap 50 yards into the end zone to cut the lead to 26-20 with 8:22 to play.
Drury answered with a touchdown drive capped off by a five yard touchdown run by Marceau. The Green Wave made it a one-score game again with 2:24 to play when Fisher connected with Patel for a 26-yard score but Marceau ran in a 50-yard touchdown on the Blue Devils’ next drive to put the game away.
Four DA teams were in action on Wednesday, with the Big Green boys soccer team beating Wilbraham and Monson, 5-1, while its boys water polo team earned a 13-6 win over Suffield.
The DA field hockey team beat Kimball Union, 4-2, while the Big Green girls soccer team tied Suffield, 1-1.