The 2005 rebuilding was paying off. The Varsity team started out with wins over their first 4 opponents until a heartbreaking loss to Westside in 5 games. Halfway through the season the Lancers were 6-4 but still had to face tough teams from East Longmeadow, Minnechaug, Agawam and Frontier. The Lancers had a slide in the second half of the season posting 4 wins and 6 losses to finish with a 10 and 10 record that narrowly qualified them for the post-season as the 11th seed.

The Lancers faced the 6th seed Chicopee Comp Colts in the tournaments preliminary round, quickly downing them in 3 games. They next faced 3rd seeded Holyoke (17-1) and administered another 3-0 drumming to advance to the semi-finals for only the second time in program history. The Lancers faced 2nd seeded Pittsfield High School but after several close games, the Lancers fell 2-3. The Lancers would lose several starting players to graduation as well as head coach Anna Stowell. The future success of the program was not in question though.

Lancers had good run in volleyball tourney
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
By BILL WELLS

The Longmeadow High School girls volleyball team closed the regular season with five straight losses. But coach Anna Stowell liked what she saw in those defeats, and felt the Lancers could make a run in the postseason. They did.

Longmeadow, which was ranked last in an 11-team field, reached the Western Massachusetts Division II semifinal round before falling to Pittsfield. The Lancers beat both Chicopee Comprehensive and Holyoke 3-0 on the road before losing at Pittsfield 3-2. They finished 12-11.

"I think the season went very well," Stowell, who's in her fourth season, said. "We had a very, very talented group of girls. We worked very hard on being mentally strong by the end of the season, and I feel we accomplished that."

Longmeadow did accomplish Stowell's goal. After all, how many teams could be confident headed into the postseason on a five-game losing streak? Stowell said the team had a stretch of tough opponents late in the season, and her team played well in defeat.

"When we played Frontier we left everything on the court," Stowell said, referring to the Lancers' late-season loss to the Red Hawks, who later won the Division III state championship. "We played amazing. Frontier is a very good team. We took a game from them."

"We did play well," senior captain Stephanie Whitney said of her team's play down the stretch in the regular season. "We didn't give up and didn't quit. We really did try. It just didn't flow our way."

But all those tough matches had the Lancers prepared for what was to come. Longmeadow played great from the start in the tournament opener at Chicopee Comprehensive.

"I prepared them the best I possibly could," Stowell said. "I knew some of the girls were mentally prepared for the tournament, but others I questioned. But those questions were wiped out right after the first game against Comp."

"We were really excited," Whitney said. "We knew it could go our way and we had to take it, and everything else fell into place after that."

Next came Holyoke, which entered the tournament with an impressive record and a league championship. But Longmeadow kept rolling.

"Holyoke was very scrappy," Stowell said. "They picked up a lot of what we were throwing at them. But the girls came in mentally prepared. We played our game."

Longmeadow's season finished with its loss at Pittsfield, with the match played in a packed gym.

"Pittsfield was a great team. It just didn't go our way," Whitney said. "We left it all on the court. I was happy. I couldn't ask for anything else."

"We played a great game," Stowell said. "I can't be upset with a loss when we played our hearts out. That's what I told them after the game.

"Pittsfield, who we had never seen before, had a different style middle hitter, and that was too much for us to adjust to that quickly. We did the best we could."

Alissa Danalis started at setter for Longmeadow, and Melanie Dionisi and Margot Bitzer were outside hitters. Whitney and Christina Mentor started as middle blockers, Caroline Hobert was the team's right side hitter, and Sam Burton played libero. Jessica McCoy, Alex Skole and Sarah Janes played key minutes for the Lancers. Katie Hannigan played the first few matches before missing the remainder of the season with a back injury, and Natalie Zucker and Andrea Davis rounded out the roster.

"We were a close team," Whitney said. "I'm going to miss it because everyone showed up to play and it was a great team."