Westfield attempts to get a hand, and a handle on the ball during Tuesday’s postseason opener against visiting East Longmeadow. (Photo by Chris Putz)
WESTFIELD – The second season – where the stakes are bigger and the lights are the brightest – opened for the Westfield High School boys’ volleyball team Monday in the Whip City.
No. 2 Westfield shook off a bit of rust before serving up a 3-0 sweep of seventh-seeded East Longmeadow in a Western Massachusetts Division 1 boys’ volleyball quarterfinal. The Bombers won 25-16, 25-13, 25-17.
“I don’t think we started off the way we wanted to,” said Westfield coach Tyler Wingate, whose team appeared to sleepwalk through the first set and trailed, albeit, briefly in the second set before pulling away.
“In the second set we got our blocking going, our eyes were reading well, and we had good ball movement,” coach Wingate said.
After falling behind midway through the second set, Westfield (17-2) reeled off 11 straight points behind the solid serves of Isaiah Headley (5 kills). Headley managed to place a floater in the back right corner of the court for an ace.
Manny Golob sizes up the competition before serving the ball up for Westfield. (Photo by Chris Putz)
Eric Shilyuk (30 assists) and Ryan Bucko (5 kills, 6 blocks) converged for a block to make it 21-12. It appeared only Westfield could stop itself when a service error stopped the run.
Any momentum East Longmeadow (11-8) attempted to build ended when Westfield’s Manny Golob planted one of his 17 kills for a 24-13 advantage. A Tyler Stanton ace secured the middle frame for the Bombers.
Westfield thoroughly dominated the third set, except for a few last gasps from East Longmeadow. Even three consecutive Spartans’ timeouts with the score 24-17 could not prevent the inevitable from happening.
Bucko and Shilyuk teamed up again for the winning block to officially punch Westfield’s ticket into the semifinals.
“Once we got settled in, it was a nice thing to see,” Wingate said.
Dmitriy Doroshenko finished with 15 digs for the Bombers.
Westfield advances to the semifinals where it will now host No. 3 Agawam (14-5) Wednesday at 5 p.m.
