WEST SPRINGFIELD — The Amherst volleyball team finally avenged its 2021 Western Mass. Class A finals defeat.
The Hurricanes were upset in last year’s Class A finals against Longmeadow, and after knocking off West Springfield in the semifinals on Friday, No. 2 Amherst found itself in a position face the No. 1 Lancers in the title match for the second straight year.
Amherst came out like a team possessed, winning the opening set 25-20. The Hurricanes overcame multiple deficits in the second set to snag a 26-24 win, and put things away in the third set to sweep Longmeadow and lift the Class A championship trophy on Sunday at West Springfield High School.
“It feels great to win this because this is such a great group of kids to work with,” Hurricanes coach Kacey Schmitt said. “Longmeadow is always a huge rival for us in a great way. We make each other better. I’ve often gone against them in league and in finals. It feels really good to beat them because they’re a formidable team.”
Championship teams typically have to overcome adversity, and that’s what Amherst faced in the second set on Sunday.
Every time the Lancers looked like they were about to pull away, the Hurricanes responded with an answer of their own. Longmeadow led 15-11 but Amherst ripped off four straight to tie it up.
The Lancers then went up 22-17, but once again the Hurricanes fought back to cut the deficit to 23-21. Both teams traded points before Longmeadow went ahead, 24-22, needing just one point to tie the match up, 1-1. Amherst earned the next two points to tie it, before putting it away, with Amalia Martin smashing a kill before a Lancer miscue gave the Hurricanes a wild 26-24 comeback win.
“The hallmark of this team is they never get on each other, they never dwell on mistakes. They don’t turn on each other and they fight together all the time,” Schmidt said. “That second set was key. We went behind, we fought back, we went behind, we fought back. Going on to win that set was the turning point of the match.”
While Martin wasn’t with Amherst a season ago, she saw how much this match meant to her teammates, with that effort and resiliency shining through when things got tough in the second frame.
“Our team is so relentless,” Martin said. “Kacey has a saying that is relentless pursuit. None of us laid down and let them take it. I wasn’t there last year but I know this game meant a lot to my teammates so it meant a lot to me. It means so much to all of us that we were able to pull this out.”
The second set was certainly deflating for Longmeadow, and Amherst dominating the third frame to roll to a 25-14 victory that secured the sweep.
“You’re always concerned they’re going to come out flat up 2-0,” Schmidt said. “We talked about that and we were ready to roll. They stayed focused and aggressive.”
After going up 2-0, Martin and the Hurricanes wanted to make sure the Lancers didn’t have a chance to make things interesting.
“Coming out for the third set we grabbed it and ran with it,” Martin said. “We’ve talked about putting up a Western Mass. banner and we wanted it so bad. I’m glad we were able to fight through. It feels awesome.”
Martin led the way with 15 kills and 14 assists in the win. Lauren Joy smashed eight kills, Ruby Austin tallied four aces and three kills and Annabel Ogden dished 17 assists for Amherst.
Next up for the Hurricanes is the MIAA Div. 2 state tournament, with seeds set to be released early this week. Amherst was the No. 15-ranked team in the latest power rankings.