Jesse Kolodkin -Berkshire Eagle
Pittsfield - It was close until it wasn't. Lenox eked out the first two sets at Taconic on Tuesday night before cruising in the third sweep, 25-21, 25-19, 25-16.
Both teams were well-matched, especially early on, but Taconic struggled to set the ball for its outside hitters all night. Meanwhile, Bella Baltazar and Olivia Ackerman did an excellent job of setting things up for their teammates, combining for 25 assists. Lenox's ability to hammer the ball from the outside wore on the Thunder and without offense in response, Lenox was able to outlast its opponent.
"Feels good," said Bella Giardina with a grin. "We've been working through, working together... learning how to play together in our new rotations so it's really nice.
"Our coach [Karalynn Hopkins] kind of spots us out and tells us [from] the sideline what we need to do. I think she's a really good coach."
Hopkins has Lenox off to a 3-0 start in her first year as the head coach. Taconic falls to 2-1.
The first set was a back-and-forth affair with the teams essentially trading points up to 16-16. Isla Dimassimo of Taconic and Brooklyn Rodriguez of Lenox both had some good service runs, but it was Rodriguez's that came later and that made the difference. Julieano got a kill and then Rodriguez dropped an ace to make it 19-16 Lenox and cap a 3-0 run for the Millionaires that forced a Taconic timeout.
The Thunder got a block from Aurora Rose DeMarco and after another point, it was just 21-20 and Lenox called a timeout. Taconic evened things up but Lenox won four straight points to take the set. Taking advantage of some miscues from a newer Taconic team and a Sara Isby kill for the set point.
"We lost eight seniors, we've got a couple carryover starters but for the most part it's a new team," said Taconic coach Lance Fyfe. "We fought really hard. Lenox plays so smart. They're just placing the ball on us most of the night. We just really had a hard time putting the ball up for our offense to swing at. We didn't have enough swings tonight so Lenox pretty much controlled the whole night.
"Our defense fought really hard, kept the first two sets pretty close but without any offense, we're in trouble."
Taconic raced out to a 5-1 start to the second set, but Lenox found its footing and went on a 9-3 run to make it 10-8 in favor of the Millionaires, capped by a big kill from Isby, who had 10 on the night. Once again, Taconic fought back, getting a kill from DeMarco to tie things at 10-10. The two sides were close from there, up to 18-18 before a nice tap from Giardina cross-court caught Taconic off-guard for a point.
She also got a block and kill to make it 20-18 and while Taconic had some trouble with its serve and hitting the ball out of bounds, Lenox played clean to the 25-19 second set win off a kill from Giardina. Lenox led 17-9 at one point in a third set that was never really close.
The Millionaires are back home on Thursday to host Pittsfield High before a road trip up to Drury on Friday. As for Taconic, the Thunder have a huge home game on Thursday against Mount Greylock.