STATE VOLLEYBALL SEMIFINALS

Bourne proves overwhelming

By Jack McCluskey, Globe Correspondent | November 14, 2007

Used to being down, the Bourne volleyball team knew its night was far from over when Courtney Faria's hit whistled through Central Catholic's defense to win the second game, 26-24.

Even though it gave Bourne a 2-0 lead in the Division 2 state semifinal match, as the team huddled by the bench Faria wouldn't let her teammates relax.

"Hey - it's not over!" shouted Faria, quieting her teammates enough for coach Tim Acton to speak.

"I knew that they were a tough team and they weren't going to lay down and die on us," said Acton after the match, a 3-0 Bourne victory last night in Milford. "Taking that second one was a big emotional lift and put them back down on their heels."

The intense second game was the match for Central, rebounding after getting beaten up in the first, 25-19, and getting five kills from senior cocaptain Audrey Warren.

Faria matched Warren, though, and Bourne's superior passing helped eke out the win.

The third game was close until Bourne capitalized on four Central errors to go ahead, 18-12, before finishing off the match, 25-16.

Bourne will play Westboro for the state title Saturday in Hudson.

Bourne seniors Amanda Chalson and Rachel Sullivan each had eight aces and were so accurate that, by the third game, the Red Raiders were dropping five defenders to the back row to try to pick up their offerings.

"They were placed well, they weren't that hard in velocity," said Central Catholic coach Gannon Paris, "but they were in spots where we had a difficult time handling them."

"We definitely put it to them and put them on their heels," said sophomore Bethany Ashworth, who led Bourne with 16 digs and 12 assists.

Westboro 3, Longmeadow 2 - Mina Baban had 33 assists as Westboro breezed into the state final by beating Longmeadow, 3-0, in Marlborough. The Rangers won, 25-12, 25-19, and 25-15. Christina Carr added 13 kills and Danielle Coffey 12.

Division 1

Milford 3, North Quincy 2 - Milford outlasted North Quincy in five games, scoring the last 5 points to prevail, 21-25, 25-22, 25-23, 22-25, 15-10, in Ashland.

Liz Ashton, who led Milford with 17 kills, ended the marathon match with a spike toward the end line that North Quincy couldn't corral.

"We're a different team without [Ashton] on the court," said Milford coach Linda Zacchilli. "I told some of her teammates to give her the ball as much as you can."

Ashton also ended the third game by blocking the attempted spike of North Quincy's Virginia Wong, pushing Milford to a 2-1 advantage. North Quincy played tough in the fourth game, fighting back from a 17-19 deficit with an 8-3 run to force the deciding game.

Division 3

Frontier 3, Millis 0 - Frontier was strong from start to finish in Marlborough, earning a match with North Reading in Saturday's state final.

Frontier coach Sean MacDonald was happy his players were able to keep Millis off balance in winning, 25-17, 25-16, and 25-22.

"Millis has some good hitters but we kept them from setting as much as they wanted to," said MacDonald.

Millis proved pesky in the final game, tying the Redhawks at 11. But MacDonald sent in seventh-grade phenom Cassidy Stankowski to serve and the Redhawks pounded Millis for 10 straight points, including two aces from Stankowski.

Stankowski finished with 25 digs and four aces and her sister, junior Alyssa, had 13 kills. Teammate Francene Cicia had 14 assists.

North Reading 3, Ursuline 2 - The Hornets upended Ursuline, 3-2, in Walpole, taking the deciding game, 15-10.

At 14-10, Adrianna Doyle spiked the ball off a pair of defenders for the win.

Doyle finished with nine kills and Alison Friberg had 18 assists - but her value was in her serve, which earned 19 points for the Hornets. Kiersten Carbone had seven kills and four aces.

"Ursuline was a heavy-hitting team and they were really good," said North Reading coach Kerianne Forrest. North Reading won the first two games, and led in the third, 25-24, before Ursuline came back to win, 27-25 and 25-20.

Globe correspondents Adam Hughes, Chris Estrada, and James Schneider contributed to this report.