ATTLEBORO — There was little that separated Bishop Feehan and Archbishop Williams through the first two sets of their match Monday night.
The two Catholic Central League foes went back and forth, trading blows. But it didn’t stay that way because the Shamrocks flipped a switch and completely took things over.
Feehan dominated the third and fourth sets to overwhelm the Bishops and earn a bounce-back 3-1 win (25-27, 26-24, 25-8, 25-9) at McIntyre Gymnasium after dropping its first match of the season last week.
“We were battling through that, and we responded nicely,” Feehan head coach Heidi Bruschi said. “The team that I wanted to see on the floor came out in the last two sets and really put their foot on the gas.”
Feehan (7-1) overcame a six-point deficit in the second set due to the strong serving of Brooke Mitchell and stellar play of Caroline Dunn (team-high 16 kills), who finished the stanza off with three straight kills.
Mia Barnes and Shannon Lamorticelli imposed their will over the final two sets to spearhead the Shamrocks. Lamorticelli notched seven kills and was a strong net-front presence as Feehan started the third set with a 14-2 run.
Barnes turned up the heat on Archbishop Williams (4-3) as well with her powerful outside hitting. She registered 12 kills, seven of which came in the third set. Barnes also starred serving by delivering six aces, all of which came in the final set and buried the Bishops in an 18-5 hole.
“It was fun,” Barnes said of her performance. “I just had so much adrenaline getting aces every time.”
Bruschi said: “Mia’s playing at a really high level right now. We couldn’t keep her off the court if we wanted to.”
Archbishop Williams was part of the gauntlet Feehan is facing in the middle of its season as the Shamrocks take on many of the state’s heavy hitters over the next couple of the weeks.
And the win over the Bishops helped get Feehan on the right track with plenty of more challenges upcoming.
“When we built the schedule, we talked about it, we want to play the best teams. We want to fight for it and compete,” Bruschi said. “We have quite the road ahead of us but I think we figured out a little bit about who we want to be today and I like that.”
