<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3xcJey_1H2JjuGQ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3xcJey_1H2JjuGQ00" width="1200" height="675" ></figure>LENOX, Mass. – With a trip to the Division 5 State Semi-Finals on the line, Lenox senior Brooklyn Rodriguez went to the service line.And after harnessing her emotions, she unleashed a serve that Old Colony Voc could not handle, sending the Millionaires to a four-set win and a Final Four berth.“Totally nervous,” Rodriguez said of what was on her mind in the moment. “I really wanted to make it for the team. I knew how important this was to us.“As a senior, it’s our last year. It’s our last game. I thought: I need to make this. And [coach Karalynn Hopkins] is always telling me to raise my hand when I serve. So I did it – not to the libero – and it was great. And I did it. It was great. It was awesome.“And it came back over, but it was out, and it was awesome, I loved it.”The decisive point capped a comeback win and a return to the Final Four for the second-seeded Millionaires, who advanced to next week’s semi-final with a 24-26, 25-16, 25-19, 29-27 win.For Hopkins, it is the latest step in a season that has gone better than she imagined back in the summer.“I have crazy adrenaline right now,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was getting into when I was coming into this with, like, a new team after we, I think, had six seniors graduate last year.“I didn’t know, but I feel very good about all of them. They did such a great job tonight. I’m very proud of them.”Early on, it looked like Lenox was going to have the kind of night that produced 15 3-0 wins in its 17-3 campaign.Evelyn Julieano (17 kills, 18 digs) delivered a kill to start a five-point run on Bella Giardina’s serve that gave the hosts a 9-2 lead in the first set.But Old Colony chipped away late in the set, getting five points on Jocelyn Doherty’s serve – two on aces and two on Alexis Papoutsis kills – to pull ahead at 23-21.Sara Isby’s kill gave Lenox a side out, but a Rachael Francois kill gave the visitors a set point at 24-23. The teams then traded side outs to give the Cougars a two-point win and a 1-0 lead in the match.“I told them it was a clean slate and to start over,” Hopkins said of her talk between the first and second sets. “I told them that they just needed to hit hard. The first set, I think we got a little bit nervous because we know that this is our last home game in the gym, and we wanted it to be a good one, and we did make it a good one. But I think the first set they had those jitters of, like, ‘Oh, gosh, this could be the last game in our gym, and it could go either way.’“So, I told them to regroup and play confident, play like they’re the best players out there, and they did that. And they played super confident. And that’s how we got that win. I’m very proud of them.”Another key was Lenox’s blocking, which accounted for three points in the second set, including two in a five-point run on Giardina’s serve that opened a 12-6 lead.“We have been working a lot on closing our blocks with our middles and our right sides, because we know as we get deeper into states, we’re going to see a lot more offense,” Hopkins said. “And when we get into long rallies like tonight, you really want to slow the game down. And to help slow the game down, you can put blocks up and help with the touches.“It really slows everything for our defense, so we don’t get shelled back there.”Rodriguez finished with three blocks, and Bella Baltazar had two blocks to go with 28 assists and 12 digs.Baltazar served a couple of aces in a three-point run that pushed the lead to 20-12, and Hadley Light put away the only runaway set of the night with two points on her serve, the last a kill from Giardina give Lenox a nine-point margin of victory and an even match at 1-1.The second set was just as even until the serve came to Giardina with the teams tied, 17-17.Benefiting from a couple of breaks, Giardina won five points on her serve to get the Millionaires within striking distance of taking the set and the lead in the match. Julieano got a point with a push that went off the net before falling to the floor to start the run, and libero Brooklyn Butler (19 digs) made a diving dig for a ball that she sent over the net and to the floor to make it 19-17.The 25-19 win moments later put Lenox one set away from ending the night.But the Cougars were not going away without a fight.Neither team could win more than two points on its serve in the fourth set until Old Colony’s Mia Amaral won four points – two on Papoutsis kills and one on an ace – to give the Cougars a 23-21 lead.A kill by Isby (10 kills, 19 digs) gave Lenox a side out, and she and Light each earned a point on her serve as the teams traded six more side outs down the stretch. Old Colony fended off two match points before Rodriguez delivered a serve that the Cougars could not return, which meant that Lenox returns to the semi-finals, where it will face No. 3 Calvary Chapel, a 3-2 winner over New Mission on Thursday night.“It’s so important to us,” Rodriguez said. “You know, it hadn’t really been a thing on our minds that home court wins a game. But this game, it really was around. We are on home court. We are the Lenox Millionaires. We need to win this. And we pushed through. We did it.”</div></body>

Block Source: iBerkshires.com

Misinformation

Clickbait

Old or repetitive news

Explicit content

Location not relevant

LENOX, Mass. – With a trip to the Division 5 State Semi-Finals on the line, Lenox senior Brooklyn Rodriguez went to the service line. And after harnessing her emotions, she unleashed a serve that Old Colony Voc could not handle, sending the Millionaires to a four-set win and a Final Four berth.

Lenox Returns to State Semi-Finals

NewsBreak

LENOX, Mass. – With a trip to the Division 5 State Semi-Finals on the line, Lenox senior Brooklyn Rodriguez went to the service line. And after harnessing 

Lenox Returns to State Semi-Finals

Comments