AGAWAM — After the Agawam boys’ volleyball got eliminated by Wayland High School in five sets, they’ve set a powerful tone to start the season.
Facing the Chicopee Comprehensive Colts, the Brownies secured another convincing three-set victory (25-22, 25-14, 25-16) on Wednesday night.
They gave the Colts their sixth consecutive loss of the season and beat the team that gave them their sole loss of the season. The win boosted Agawam’s record to an impressive 13-1.
“Comp played great the first time we played them,” Brownies coach Kevin Pender said. “We were finishing six games in nine days to open the season, so I think fatigue caught up with us. But they played great. It was good tonight to get the win at home.”
Throughout the game, Agawam limited the number of rallies the Colts went on. Agawam got out to a slight 2-1 lead early on and didn’t give up the lead for the rest of the set. Agawam and Chicopee Comp continued to fight back and forth, as Agawam didn’t go on its first significant run until it was 10-8.
“That’s a big part of our game plan, to limit the opponent’s runs to make sure we can side out and get control of the play and the ball back,” Pender said. “That way, we can execute our skills. I don’t think there’s a weak link in any of our chain. We have a great bench, so I really can’t say enough about these guys.”
Here, they scored the next five points in a row. It got kicked off with a kill from Tim Karcha, with the assist from setter David Dzhenzherukha, and ended with an ace from John Cote. Agawam also got a kill from Chase Gerani, who led the team in kills with 11.
“Setting was awesome,” Gerani said. “We have such a good team and program; it helps everybody else. It’s good.”
After the ace from Cote, Gerani got another kill two plays later and ended up getting a few more across the set to help Agawam take set one. Other key contributors included captain Joe Culhane and Dennis Nesen, but Comp started to creep their way closer late into the set.
With a score of 21-17, Comp got a huge kill from Josue Hernandez, and Gerani put the lead back to four with another kill. Alexander Rivera delivered the next kill for Chicopee Comp, and an Agawam attack error put them within two before Rivera came through with another kill.
Now 22-21, Rivera committed a service error as Culhane followed this up with a kill, putting Agawam one point away. Karcha committed a service error to give the ball back to the Colts, but Hernandez committed a service error of his own to give Agawam the first set.
Gerani started the second set by blocking an attack from Daniel Gauthier, as Dzhenzherukha then got a kill of his own, shooting it right to the left across the net before landing on the Colts’ side of the floor. Gerani got another kill early to make it 3-1 at the time, as Agawam held a slight 8-7 lead.
Agawam scored the next six points in a row, starting off with a Comp service and attack error. Culhane grabbed another kill, followed by Karcha, as the ball rolled across the net and fell on the Colts’ side of the floor. Gerani then delivered another kill, followed by Dzhenzherukha, who faked the set and pushed the ball over the kill.
Now 14-7, Comp scored a point off a service error before Agawam scored four more in a row, giving them a sizable 18-8 lead that they would not relinquish.
“When we execute our game, it’s big,” Pender said. “When we’re serving well, that really feeds into our game plan. We’re a good blocking team; we dig pretty well. But when we donate points from the service line, that lets any team play with us and hang with us.
“We saw when it turned on what we can do.”
Now up 2-0, Agawam got out to a very early 6-3 lead before going on another streak, scoring five points in a row. This run was highlighted by an ace from Andrei Batranciuc, as this helped them get out to a strong 11-3 lead.
Batranciuc committed a service error, but the Brownies rallied right back, scoring the next three in a row with another kill from Gerani.
Agawam worked themselves up to a 23-9 lead, but Comp provided a late rally, as they scored the next seven points in a row before Agawam finished them off with two more points they needed to get to 25.
Agawam will host Ludlow on Thursday at 6:15 p.m., while Chicopee Comp will play Minnechaug on the road Tuesday at the same scheduled time.
