BILLERICA – “New coach, new beginnings.”
That is how Hopedale volleyball senior Olivia Barroso described this year’s Blue Raiders. The Div. 5 state champion Blue Raiders, that is.
Earning the top seed in the MIAA state tournament, Hopedale rallied to its first-ever final appearance and defeated No. 7 Smith Vocational (Northhampton) in three sets to earn the program’s first-ever state championship.
All season long, under the new leadership of head coach Gary Patch, the Blue Raiders were focused on redefining the dynamic and simply playing “Hopedale volleyball.”
Hopedale senior Olivia Barroso against Smith Vocational during the Division 5 girls volleyball state championship at Billerica High School on Nov. 15. ART ILLMAN/DAILY NEWS AND WICKED LOCAL
“When he first came, we had a very positive mindset. New coach, new beginnings,” Barroso said. “We really just focused on being a team this year and he helped us with our dynamic and our skills and that’s what ultimately brought us here.”
The champs swept Smith in straight sets with wins of 25-11, 25-16 and 25-23. Despite winning in three, Smith forced Hopedale into a battle, especially throughout the third set.
By midway through the third set, the teams were going point-for-point after Hopedale shrunk Smith’s lead and tied it up at 14-14.
Hopedale hit its spots and forced Smith to make mistakes. An ace from senior Daisy Everett was a huge momentum turner to lift Hopedale to 2422.
Smith earned one more point, but Mia Casey’s hit on the final volley of the game caused Smith to send the ball out of bounds, securing the victory for Hopedale.
“Especially in playoffs, that’s a big thing we’ve had to capitalize on,” senior Phoebe Carroll said of Hopedale’s mental toughness. “Washing the point, it didn’t even happen, getting back on your feet.”
Patch, a seasoned volleyball coach in Massachusetts, led Medway to a finals appearance in 2021 and collected six league titles at Bancroft, but this win with Hopedale was his first state championship.
“I think it really falls on the team that when a new coach comes in and changes everything, they have to be on board and accept all the philosophies, the work ethic, a new system for everything,” Patch said.
The Blue Raiders certainly found the recipe for a winning season, focusing on positivity, energy and aggression on the court.
They only let up two sets throughout its playoff run: defeating Renaissance and Lenox 3-1 in the state quarters and semis, respectively. Hopedale only went to five sets in five games over the course of the season and were victorious in four of those.
“He really pulled us all together this season,” Carroll said of Patch. “As the season kept going, we just kept getting more confident.”
That confidence helped earn Hopedale its first volleyball state title. For six seniors, what a legacy to leave.
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By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer
Gary Patch inherited the Hopedale volleyball team this past season and quickly took the team to the top of the mountain. The furthest the Blue Raiders had ever made it in the Division 5 state Tournament was the semi-finals three years ago. This year, Hopedale won all five of its games to capture the State Championship by defeating its opponents 15 matches to 2 posting three shutouts including the final against Smith Vocational.
Although the Blue Raiders were able to bring their first ever State Volleyball Championship home to Hopedale, Patch believes it was not his doing but that of the girls.
“Being my first year, I didn’t want to set any real high expectations, instead we would have team goals that we could meet throughout the year. I definitely didn’t think that we’d be looking to win a championship,” the coach said. “A lot of this was on the kids themselves. I have been a coach for a long time, and I threw a lot of new stuff at them, making them accountable for the changes in both the offensive and defensive systems.”
Hopedale began the season with a loss to Notre Dame Academy in Worcester, a team that would eventually go 19-1. Despite the opening night loss, the Blue Raiders were not intimated and would beat Nipmuc and Whitinsville both times, for the first time in a while. The girls then knew the possibilities that sat in front of them for the remainder of the season.
Not long after, the first power rankings were released and Hopedale found themselves ranked number one due to their strength of schedule opponents. At that moment, the team’s confidence grew and luckily, not having a deep roster, they continued the season without any injuries and finished with a 14-6 regular season record.
Senior captains Olivia Barroso, the team’s setter, and libero Josalyn Moyer helped the first-year Hopedale coach achieve the ultimate goal. According to Patch, the two seniors played a big part in keeping the rest of the team positive while helping to adapt to the culture change that he brought to the program.
Another senior who played an enormous part in achieving the school’s first-ever volleyball state title was Phoebe Carroll. The senior was very instrumental in being competitive with the stronger teams that Hopedale had to face. Offensively, she was the team’s most efficient player and led the team in kills. Mia Casey, a senior outside hitter, also provided some big plays to help the Blue Raiders climb the elusive mountain.
While Patch was the guiding force behind the Blue Raiders first Stat Championship, he just wanted to go through the season with an opportunity to become better.
“I’ve been doing this for so long that there was no pressure on me this year,” he said. “I just wanted the girls to progressively get better, that was our plan, while eventually making the tournament.”
Having obtained something that had eluded the team in the past, it may be very difficult to repeat next year since, the majority of this season, the coach ran with five seniors and one junior on the court.
“Next year is going to be a complete rebuild,” Patch said. “One good thing is that being a small school Hopedale can start training 7th and 8th graders in the program so that by the time they touch the ball for the first time as freshmen, they are ready to go. The experience of learning the game at practice, as well as getting to see it firsthand during games, will have them fully ready to take to the courts.”
Patch is also hoping the success the program had this year entices girls to come out for the team in the future. They have already had an elementary school clinic where 24 girls signed up – according to the coach that is a good sign for the future of volleyball at Hopedale.