WESTFIELD – The Westfield High School girls’ volleyball opened the season with a run of sorts, reeling off four straight wins. But that all came crashing to a halt against another 4-0 team, Chicopee Comp, at home in three straight sets yesterday.
Chicopee Comp remained unbeaten by defeating Westfield 25-14, 25-21, 25-17.
Westfield held steadfast in all three sets, only to run out of steam at the end. In the first set, both teams were tied much of the way until Comp went on a bit of a run. Kate Menard was the only thing standing in the way of more Colts’ points as she delivered a kill to bring the Bombers within six, 18-12.
Comp scored seven of the final points.
In the middle frame, Westfield took a slight lead but fell behind 18-16. Still, the Bombers rallied before the Colts prevailed late, 25-21.
The final set was similar to the previous two, tied throughout.
Trailing early, Westfield reeled off four straight points to force a 7-7 tie. Maddy Atkocaitis provided the run’s highlight, with a pair of well-timed spikes.
The two teams became knotted at 10-10 before Comp – with the help of a Sasha Roberts ace – pulled ahead 15-10. The Pacers scored six of the next seven for a commanding 21-11 lead. The Bombers could not recover.
“They really executed their offense really nice,” Westfield coach Greg Thompson said of the opposition. “Their outside hitter (Starr Ripley) played really great. We had a hard time executing our offense. We couldn’t get our kills down.”
Ripley (8 kills) and teammate Ashley Clark (9 kills) found a way to strike their opponent.
Through the first five quarter of the season, Westfield has managed to care of its opposition with a nearly 90 percent serve rate.
“We’re really setting it up right,” said coach Thompson. “But (Comp’s) serve-receive made it unable to run our offense. We ran into a good team tonight”
Thompson credited three of his seven seniors – Mary Calabrese, Abby Hart, and Kate Menard – with paving the way for the rest with their solid serves early on in the season.
