WEST ANDOVER — One thing is for certain, once Bedford gets on a roll, it's a very hard team to stop.
After limping out to a 2-7 start to its season, the Buccaneers won 9 of their final 11 regular season contests. Sneaking into the Division 2 North tournament as the ninth seed among 11 teams, Bedford then toppled No. 8 Bishop Fenwick to earn a quarterfinal berth and a daunting task — hitting the road to tackle No. 1 seed Greater Lawrence Tech last night.
The Reggies, 20-0 and state Vocational school champions, came out on fire by winning 11 of the first 12 points of the night and eventually the first game, 25-10. But Bedford composed itself and ran off momentum-killing runs that slowly took the steam out of the Commonwealth Conference-based hosts.
Repelling Greater Lawrence's last, game-four gasp, the Buccaneers prevailed 10-25, 25-16, 25-9, 25-21 to garner a semifinal date tomorrow night (7 p.m.) at No. 4 North Reading, a 3-0 victor over CAC member Greater Lowell last night.
Senior Paola Gutierrez (10 kills, 12 service points and 7 digs) got the Reggie partisans among the 150 in attendance rowdy early, spinning a commanding run of 10 straight service points featuring deep, unreturnable serves matched with powerful net play from junior Trudy Goetchius (17 kills and 6 blocks).
But after that first game rampage, powered by aggressive team-wide play and wrapped up by three kills and a return winner from Goetchius, Gr. Lawrence only held two other leads on the evening, the last at 8-7 in game two.
After Goetchius ran off five straight service points with help from the net play of Vanessa Noesi, Bedford bounced back with a crushing 11-2 blitz sparked by kills from juniors Kylie Foy and Emily Pietrasik to knot the match at a game apiece.
"We moved two girls up to the net and found some weaknesses when we're serving," Buccaneer head coach Ryan Schmitt said, "but mainly we just told the girls to settle down and make plays."
A third-game, 14-2 run led by three kills from Pietrasik (11 kills and 7 aces) and two more from Becky Waghorne (6 kills and 6 blocks in her second-ever varsity contest) took a lot of steam out of the Reggies. Seven straight Gr. Lawrence errors in game four all but sealed the locals' fate.
"Bedford is as good as the good teams in our league," said Reggie head coach Kevin Maloney. "They did a good job keeping the ball away from our best players."
Strong serving from sophomore Francis DeJesus and junior Christie Falette drew the Reggies within a point, 19-18, in the deciding game but lethal serves from Kylie Foy and senior Amy Campbell sealed the victory.
"I have no complaints about this season," said Maloney. "We're the best Voke team in the state and that's the tournament we belong in, playing against our peers."
Bedford 3, Greater Lawrence 1
Division 2 North Quarterfinals
Kills: GL — Trudy Goetchius 17, Paola Gutierrez 10; B — Emily Pietrasik 11, Becky Waghorne 6
Blocks: GL— Goetchius 6; B — Waghorne 6
Assists: GL — Jenny-Lee Sosa 8
Service points (aces): GL — Gutierrez 12 (5); B — Pietrasik (7)
Digs: GL — Gutierrez 7
Bedford (13-9): 10âÇ25âÇ25âÇ25 — 3
Greater Lawrence (20-1): 25âÇ16âÇâÇ9âÇ21 — 1
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