Hollis Brookline girls volleyball comes back to beat Concord to win D1 title

DERRY – With nothing less than the Division I championship on the line, Maddie Norris turned to Hannah Balfour and request the ball.

Not many sophomores would say that to a senior, but not many teams are built like the Hollis Brookline High School girls volleyball team.

With seniors like Balfour, Rachel Bill and Taylor Hamel providing a steadying hand, the No. 4 Cavaliers were carried by their young hitters to a 3-1 win over No. 2 Concord on Saturday to win the division title at Pinkerton Academy. Game scores were 12-25, 26-24, 25-14 and 25-15.

The title is the second straight for HB (19-3) and the third since the Cavs moved up to Division I in 2010.

The Cavs got the win in a bit of an unconventional way, falling way behind in the first game and trailing in the second before turning things around to get the win. Norris closed out the match with her 18th kill of the match, converting a set by Balfour.

“It’s a testimony to these girls,” said HB coach Becky Balfour, Hannah’s mother. “We’re like the little engine that could. After that first game, we just said ‘OK, that’s over, let’s move on.’ We’ve worked all season to do that, to stay mentally present and consistent. Not let a set loss get to them, and I think that speaks volumes to these girls.

“We weren’t executing very much. We weren’t serving well, we weren’t passing well, we weren’t hitting well. Concord is a phenomenal team, so we knew we were going to have to battle.”

Norris also had four digs while fellow sophomore Elizabeth Atkinson had nine kills and Bill added eight. Hannah Balfour added 45 assists and 10 digs while freshman Sammie Sheppard had 11 digs.

Lauren Hatch stood out for Concord (18-3), and Mia Harmon also played well, as the Crimson Tide dominated the first game.

Concord came out looking like the team that had played in the final before, jumping out to a 9-2 lead and forcing HB to take a timeout. The Cavs were able to get a closer, cutting the lead to 11-7, but the Tide kept the foot on the gas.

Behind the serving of Brenna Vandersea, Concord won seven straight points to go up 19-8 and went on for a 13-point win in the first game.

It looked like the Tide might do the same in the second game, jumping out to a 10-4 lead, but HB wouldn’t go away. The Cavs cut the deficit to four, and then with Norris serving, won five points in a row to get to within one, 14-13.

“After that first game, we said what do we need to fix,” Norris said. “We went on the court and fixed what we just did. We knew they’d come out swinging hard and we had to bring our game up just as hard. They have an amazing offense and we needed to bring up our level.”

HB kept chipping away, tying it at 18 and going up 20-18. But Concord came right back, winning four straight points to go back ahead 22-20.

The Cavs rallied again to retake the lead, 23-22, and the teams traded points until a block by Atkinson gave HB a 26-24 win.

The third game started out close, but with Natalie Cook at the line, the Cavs took six straight points and 11 of the final 12 to go up 2-1.

HB stormed out to another big lead in the fourth game, forcing Concord to take timeouts with the Cavs up 11-4 and 20-8. The Tide kept the match going by winning four points in a row to make it 23-15, but HB was able to get the serve back, setting up the clinching kill by Norris.

“She came up to me the point before and said ‘give me this ball,’ ” Hannah Balfour said. “I could see in her eyes, that light, that she’s going to kill it. I knew she was going to bring it home.”