TURNERS FALLS — After years of knocking on the door of the semifinals, dropping matches in the state quarters the last two seasons, the Turners Falls volleyball team wasn’t going to be denied this time around. 

Hosting No. 11 Hopedale in the MIAA Div. 5 quarterfinals on Thursday, third-seeded Turners came out like a team hoping to reach its first state semifinal under the new statewide tournament format by scoring the opening four points of the match. 

The Blue Raiders fought back and ended up tying the first set at 21, but the Thunder ripped off four straight points to take a 1-0 set lead. Turners was able to ride that momentum the rest of the way, earning a 3-0 sweep and a spot in the semifinals.

Waiting for the Thunder in the next round is second-seeded Bourne, with the date and time for that contest to be determined. Bourne defeated Whitinsville Christian, 3-0, in another Thursday quarterfinal. 

“That was a very good team we played,” Turners Falls coach Kelly Liimatainen said of Hopedale. “I wasn’t expecting it to be 3-0. I thought it was going to be our first five-set match of the season. They came out ready to play and I was very happy.

“Bourne will be an excellent team,” Liimatainen continued. “We’re going to need to fight hard and it will be a battle. I’m just excited to be in the Final Four. This is the first year we’ve been there. We’ll just live this out and go from there.”

It was team chemistry that propelled the Thunder (20-2) according to senior Taylor Greene. She credited that cohesion as the reason Turners managed to get over the quarterfinal hump. 

“It’s crazy making the Final Four my senior year,” Greene said. “It hasn’t settled in yet. Our team finally came together this year. We worked well as a team. There was a lot of energy in the gym with [Hopedale’s] student section but our Turners pride overcame what they brought.” 

Janelle Massey put down a pair of early aces before Madi Liimatainen recorded a block to help the Thunder gain a 4-0 lead in the opening set. 

Hopedale (13-10) fought back, with Mia Casey supplying the offense via a trio of kills while Turners went through a stretch where it struggled to keep its spikes inbounds. That allowed the Blue Raiders to get back in the game and tie things at 17. 

Phoebe Carroll smashed back-to-back aces for Hopedale to take a 19-17 lead but the Thunder kept their composure and scored a pair of points on Blue Raider errors while Massey cracked a kill to tie things at 20.

Both teams traded points before Turners took the lead on a Hopedale error. Massey put down a kill, Jill Reynolds followed it up with a kill and Massey closed things out with yet another kill to give the Thunder a quick lead via a 25-21 set win. 

“That first set gave us a lot of momentum,” Kelly Liimatainen said. “It was close. We just had to finish it strong. We came out with that first set and the momentum was on our side.” 

For libero Madisyn Dietz, figuring out how Hopedale — an unfamiliar opponent — operated was imperative, and once they got the gameplan down the Thunder could settle in and play their game. 

“I think that we needed to get that energy and needed to know how they played,” Dietz said. “We knew that when we were getting down that wasn’t us at all. We had to bring it up.” 

It was the Blue Raiders that flipped the script and got out to a quick start in the second set, building a 7-4 lead behind a duo of kills from Kelsey Evans and Casey. 

Turners ended up tying things at 10 before going on a run with Massey in the service station, as the sophomore tallied a pair of aces while the Thunder scored five straight to take command with a 15-10 lead. 

Hopedale got it as close at 18-16 but Turners turned it on from there, with Liimatainen and Massey putting down consecutive kills. Greene later tallied a kill to give the Thunder a 23-17 lead. The team’s setter, Greene dumped a second ball that the Blue Raiders weren't prepared for to close things out with a 25-18 set win to put Turners up, 2-0. 

“The team played really well together,” Kelly Liimatainen said. “When one was down they picked the other up. They clicked, went after balls and played hard.” 

The Thunder came out flying once again in the third set, taking a 6-1 lead behind a trio of aces from Mario Pareja and a kill from Liimatainen. Turners was able to maintain its lead throughout and never trailed in the set, with the match ending after Hopedale was unable return a ball over the net on match point, giving the Thunder a 25-18 set win and sending them to the state semis.

Liimatainen, playing under the weather, led the way with 10 kills and two aces in the win. Massey came up big with eight kills and four aces, Greene recorded four kills and one ace, Tatiana Carr-Williams and Keira Richardson-Meatty each had two kills for Turners. 

Keeping the energy up and continuing to play as a team are things Massey said will be key to keeping the season alive during the next round. 

“We’re all so close,” Massey said. “That’s what makes this such a good team. We just have to keep our energy up these next few rounds.”