The No. 5 Mahopac volleyball team stunned top-seeded Horace Greeley, 3-2, in a Class AA playoff semifinal thriller last night (Nov. 5) in Chappaqua.
Mahopac advances to its first championship match in more than 20 years and will face No. 3 Yorktown at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Westchester County Center.
Mahopac, which reached the finals twice in the early 2000s, has never won a volleyball title.
On the way to the semifinal, Mahopac overcame a rough start to win the first round before getting a measure of revenge against the school that eliminated this year’s football and both soccer teams — Harrison — in the second.
After dropping the opening set of its Class AA first-round match against No. 12 Saunders last Wednesday (Oct. 29), the Wolf Pac stormed back to take the match, 3-1, and then topped it with a five-set win in Saturday’s quarterfinal at No. 4 Harrison.
At Harrison, Mahopac came out strong and took the first set, 25-15. The second went to Harrison, 25-21, but Mahopac bounced back to win the third, 25-20. Harrison evened it with a tight fourth, 25-23, before the Wolf Pac closed it out, 15-12, in the fifth.
“We were confident going in, and it was a great win for the girls,” coach Jay Melville said. “They were very excited. It was a lot more nerve-wracking than it should have been. We came out on fire in the first set and won it convincingly. In the second we were aggressive, but we gave them too many chances, and they capitalized.
“The third was tight — we got a lead and held on at the end,” Melville said. “In the fourth, they raised their level and fought, and we matched their energy well, but we missed five of seven serves and made too many mistakes. And I don’t know how we won the fifth … we made errors. But they did too.”
Mahopac trailed 11-10 in that fifth set but got the ball back and finished it off. “We raised our level again and got the win,” Melville said. “Taylor Ann Vitiello made a big play for us at the end and played well all night. So did Bella DeChico and Vivien Zucchi, both with key kills. And everyone in our back row did a great job giving us extra chances.”
Vitiello had 21 kills, DeChico 16, and Zucchi 10. Olivia Hoyt had five aces. DeChico handed out 31 assists, and Lily Slizowski added 17.
Mahopac dropped the first set of its opening-round match vs. Saunders, 26-24, but recovered to take the next three, 25-11, 25-14, 25-21. Vitiello had 19 kills, Slizowski five aces, and Hoyt four. DeChico dished out 26 assists, and Slizowski finished with nine.
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