Lee and Lenox face toughest foes today

The Millionaires and the undefeated Wildcats will face their toughest opponents of the season today in the Western Massachusetts Division 3 Volleyball Tournament.

John Warner’s 20-0 Wildcats finished off their second perfect regular season under the 10th-year coach with an impressive 3-1 win over Monument Mountain on Halloween.

After easily beating Belchertown in their first playoff game, 3-0, the Wildcats will have to take on a tough Mahar team, who has seen defending two-time state champ Frontier twice during the regular season – but don’t tell Lee that.

“We’ve been a force to be reckoned with the last two years,” Warner said.

Against the Spartans, Lee’s Katie Morin had 11 kills, four aces, two digs, four blocks and 13 assists, and Lauren Richardson had seven kills, two digs, four aces and 14 assists to lead the Wildcats in scoring, as they have all season long.

Defensively, the Wildcats rely on Vanessa Castillo to make the important digs and keep balls alive as the shortest girl on the court in most cases, can often be found flying from the backline to make a dig, and up to the net to spike a winner.

“[Castillo] can out-jump everyone on the team,” said Warner of his defensive stalwart. “[She is a] phenomenal defensive player who has made fantastic digs this year that you don’t see at the collegiate level.”

While Castillo mans the backlines, a majority of Lee’s scoring comes from the frontline and the service game, with the 6’2” Morin being the biggest difference maker.

“She is a force because she is so big in the middle,” Warner said. “We run a lot of offense through the middle and for a lot of teams it was difficult to attack with [Morin].”

Against Monument, the Spartans were able to squeak out a game against the powerhouse Wildcats, winning the second game 25-23. However, Lee came back with some deep serves to open up a 9-0 lead in the third game before winning easily, 25-13.

Lee won their finale against the Spartans 25-10, 23-25, 25-13, 25-15, while they beat Belchertown 25-16, 25-17, 25-9.

“Five out of our six servers are effective, deep servers, and when they are on, they are tough to beat,” Warner said.

With Frontier hosting Lenox today, it appears, if the Wildcats can get by a tough Mahar team, their perfect record will meet the immovable force – Frontier.

“Frontier is a powerhouse – there is no getting around that,” Warner said.

For the time being, Frontier will be Lenox’s problem, as Ed Paquette’s 14-4 Millionaires travel to South Deerfield to take on the two-time state champs.

The Millionaires will make their volleyball pilgrimage thanks to Rachel Cogswell, as her team easily beat South Hadley (3-0) in the first round and Wahconah (3-1) in the second.

After the South Hadley win, Paquette was pleased with his team’s ability to play together with the return of Makayla White.

“They were totally together,” said Paquette after the first-round win. “They executed very well – they did the things they were suppose to do.”

Cogswell is the cornerstone of the Millionaires’ offense, as she had a remarkable 22 assists against South Hadley.

“[Cogswell] is a special player – there is no doubt about that,” Paquette said. “She sees everything – she sees ahead and she plans accordingly.”

Paquette’s team has been looking forward to a shot at Frontier all season long, since last year’s second-round loss, and they too have planned accordingly.

“We’ve had some of the male teachers who are former players come in to practice and work with the girls on returning some fast spikes – and the girls were returning them.”

If Lenox and Lee are going to get by the state champs they may have to do more then just return their spikes – they will have to score.

Posted by Tim Davis on November 8, 2012. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry