Ghosts Girls' Volleyball See Their Season End In Franklin

Every season must end, and as fall slowly turns into winter, another fall 2011 team saw its season end.

The Grey Ghosts girls' volleyball team fell to the Panthers of Franklin High School in the MIAA Division 1 Central-West quarterfinals on Wednesday night, concluding a year that at one point saw them as one of the hottest teams in Massachusetts.

That quick start, where the Ghosts went 10-4 and had a streak of seven wins in a row, had been echoed briefly in their performance against Wachusett Regional a few days earlier, but seemed an incalculable distance away on this night.

"My team was not here today," said Westford Academy head coach Maria Henderson. “There were a bunch of unforced errors; we’ve never missed so many serves in a playoff game.”

Westford was unable to take a lead at any point in the contest, falling behind quickly in the first set and holding brief ties early in the second and third before conceding all three (25-15, 25,-17, 25-15.)

On the other side of the net, the win was fairly routine for a side that would have been undefeated if not for one early October contest against Canton.

If there were any doubts that the strength of that regular season record could hold up against an opponent in a league that holds four of the 11 teams in the Central-West bracket, including two of the top four seeds, it appears that those doubts were eliminated along with the Grey Ghosts’ hopes of advancing.

“Well, we’re the number one seed, we’re 18-1, we’re pretty good,” said Franklin head coach Kate Horsmann. “I thought they’d be pretty good since they play in a good league, but I think we earned our seed, so I thought we would win.”

The win also provided Horsmann’s less experienced players with a firsthand understanding of what playoff volleyball is like, as well as helping shake off the cobwebs from a long layoff after the storm.

“You gotta go out there and start playing. Hopefully now the nerves are out,” the coach explained. “We have girls who had this as their first year on the varsity and this was their first tournament match ever.  I think it showed only a little tonight, overall I think we did a good job.”

Franklin now moves forward to a second straight home game against Dual County League competition in the semi-finals, facing Acton-Boxborough on Thursday night at 7 p.m.