For the last two years, the Newton North girls’ volleyball team watched as Barnstable celebrated Division 1 state titles in front of it.
But after senior Madeleine Lundberg blocked an Andover shot to seal the win Saturday at Fitchburg High, Newton North (20-3) finally claimed its first Division 1 state title, defeating the Golden Warriors in five sets, 12-25, 25-21, 20-25, 25-12, 15-10.
“It’s so eminently satisfying,” Newton North coach Richard Barton said. “It’s such an accomplishment.”
After a quick start from Andover (22-2) put Newton North down one set, Lundberg said the team didn’t panic.
“We weren’t really playing our game,” said Lundberg. “We [had] to just follow our plan that [we’d] set for ourselves and play our game.”
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Led by several key blocks from the Tigers’ front row, Newton North climbed back into the match.
“We’ve had a really strong block this whole year,” Lundberg said. “It’s games like this where you realize how important it is.”
After Andover claimed the third set, Newton North shifted momentum in the fourth set.
With the set tied, 11-11, the Tigers won 14 of the next 15 points to even the match.
“We went in and we knew this was our year,” Lundberg said of Newton North’s mind-set. “We just went in with the mentality that it was our year and we had to win.”
In the fifth set, the Tigers wore down the Golden Warriors and won the deciding set going away.
“We just kept the pedal to the metal,” Barton added. “Finally, it paid off.”
Hopkinton 3, Weston 0 — After spiking for game point, Hopkinton captain Holly Adams approached the service line, for what would be the last serve of her high school career, and shouts from fans yelling “MVP, MVP’’ echoed in the Fitchburg High the gymnasium.
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Adams helped the Hillers make history as they clinched their first state championship with a win over Weston (25-17, 25-22, 25-14).
“I don’t think they have the word ‘lose’ in their vocabulary,” said Hillers coach Margie Grabmeier, whose team improved to 22-2.
Including their championship win, the Hillers posted 22 shutouts this season. Weston ended its season at 19-5 after having earned its first sectional title in school history.
The Hillers powered through the third set, extending the lead to 17-5 after a Whitney Thalheimer spike at the back row and an Adams service ace. Adams’s hit at the back row made the it 24-14, and a Weston error finished the game.
“We worked hard all the way through. We had just had to play clean to win that game,” said Adams.
In the second set, Weston sophomore Athena Ardila was the catalyst as the Wildcats some of the state’s most powerful hitting for a 20-13 lead. But Wildcats errors allowed the Hillers to close the gap until Thalheimer drilled one down the back row to tie at 21.
A Jess Rector block handed the Hillers the lead for the first time all set (22-21), and Hanna Engstrom, a Trinity College commit, penetrated a double block to make it 23-21 to force Weston into a timeout. It was the last offensive play before Weston errors ended the set, 25-22.
“They were planning on going all the way from the preseason and, even being down in Set 2, they were pushing to finish it,” said Grabmeier.
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Frontier 3, Case 1 — Frontier will be remembered as the comeback team of 2014.
“We’re really good at that,” said senior captain Cassidy Ciesluk of her five-time repeating state champion Red Hawks after beating Case.
Case (22-3) was the last team to deal the Red Hawks a postseason loss in the 2009 state semifinals. The Red Hawks (23-1) stopped Case’s run in the tournament in 2010 and 2011.
“We’ve just had a lot of success the last two years and it’s just starting to roll,” said Red Hawks coach Sean MacDonald, following the 25-18, 22-25, 25-14, 25-17 win.
Despite several lulls, including 14 errors that cost them the second set, the Red Hawks never stopped battling.
MacDonald told his squad that if they “clean this up and cut errors in half we win. I talked to them about the Lynnfield [comeback] match . . . so sooner or later you kind of come back to who you are, so let’s get back to who we are.”
The Red Hawks raced to a 22-8 lead in the first set with Remi Quesnelle’s two aces and Sarah Conlisk’s spikes off sets from Emily Woodward the highlights.
Ellie Roberts, Sarah Raposo, Jenna Santerre, and Kaitlyn Kopecky had strong second games as Case evened the match.
In the third set, Cassidy Ciesluk (18 kills) drilled a spike to the back row to tie it at 8 . Conlisk (14 kills), Quesnelle (7 aces, 6 kills), and Woodward (49 assists) produced a spike, a service ace, and a forced tip, respectively, for a 20-12 lead. Conlisk lunged at the net for a spike to make it 23-13, and Rachel Cialek’s service ace set up game point. A Case error ended the set.
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Quesnelle’s back-to-back service aces lifted the Red Hawks to an 18-14 lead in the fourth set and they won going away.
After Conlisk’s spike off a set from Woodward made it 22-16, the Red Hawks brought senior captain Alli Bardwell to serve for the remainder of the match for a service ace, 23-16. Red Hawks’ Shelby Telega sent over a free ball, which Case couldn’t send back.
The five-time defending state champion Red Hawks have won 10 consecutive sectional titles.