Volleyball

Volleyball was invented in Holyoke, but it seems as though it was perfected in Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region.

According to longtime Recorder sports writer Mark Durant, the first Western Mass. volleyball championship was held in 1976 and since that inaugural match, local teams have won a total of 24 Western Mass. titles. Of the 24 championship teams, three went on to claim the elusive state championship as well.

Frontier has been nearly perfect from 2005-06 season and is why the Red Hawks have been able to win back-to-back state titles. Riding the powerful hitting of Abby Majewski and the pinpoint setting of Nikki Wisseman, the 2005 Red Hawks sported a 25-0 mark en route to its first state title. Majewski took her team-high 319 kills to Division I Providence College - the first Frontier player to go D1 since Michelle Paciorek went to UMass in the early 1990s - but Frontier's cupboard was far from bare. Led by the senior leadership of Nelly Denehy and Mandy Zajac, the smashing blasts of outside hitter Mary Spadola and the overall play of sophomore standouts Franny Cicia and Alyssa Stankowski, Frontier posted a record of 23-2 and took down North Reading in four games for the 2006 crown and second straight state title.

The areas first and long awaited state championship came in 1997 by Mahar, but the Senators planted the seeds for the title in 1996. Several of the Senators - Sarah Woodward, Sarah Haigh, Robin Bacon, Megan Woodcock and the Johnson sisters, Erica and Mandy - were not only high school teammates but Junior Olympic ones as well and after losing in the states in 1996, spent the summer refining their games. The hardwork and travel during the long summer paid off big time for Mahar as the Senators were perfect, culminating in the school's first ever state championship in any sport.

In 2010 Frontier was more than perfect. The Red Hawks won their 26th straight match against no defeats to win their third state title in the 2000s. Frontier, behind four All-State selections, including sophomore Cassidy Stankowski, and senior newcomers Tori and Katy Daniels, defeated Joseph Case of Swansea in three straight games, 25-15, 25-12 and 25-11, to become the only WMass school to ever go 26-0 in any sport. The successful Red Hawks have now won seven straight Northern Division titles and sixth straight WMass titles to go along with their three state crowns.

One interesting tidbit that some might not know is that in 1986, the area won two Western Mass. titles. Turners beat Mahar for the Division II crown, while for the first and only time in area volleyball history, Athol won the Division I title.

"It was the first year that they split teams in Western Mass into D1 and D2 in girls volleyball," explained Athol athletic director David King. "That year Athol fell into the D1 tournament. However, none of the other D1 teams qualified for the tournament and Athol won the championship due to default."

If it sounds confusing it is. Current Athol coach Donna Lajoie was on that '86 club and said even the players were baffled after playing a full Division II regular-season schedule.

"The previous year we had beaten Turners in the Western Mass semis and then lost to Mahar in the finals," Lajoie said. "We were dying for another shot at Mahar my senior year, but they went and put us into (different) divisions. We were disappointed because we didn't want our title that way, but there was nothing we could do. It was a very strange situation. I don't know if that has ever happened before in any sport."

According to records found over the past 40 years, no other team had won a title, in any sport, that way. Durant added that now there is no Division I teams. Our schools play in Division III while the bigger schools around Western Mass. play in Division II.

Durant was the first reporter in this area to actually do research on the Western Mass. tournament.

"I covered a lot of volleyball over the years and just wanted to know what the history was," Durant said. "About 10 years ago I really started digging around and once I start looking for something I won't stop until I find it. We just add to the list every year now."

Durant's research has enabled this site to post every Western Mass. championship game since it's inception in 1976.