On Tuesday, Oct. 25, Holyoke Community College defeated the Knights to advance to the next round of the playoff.

The game at Whittier Tech ended in a 1-1 tie and Holyoke advance to the semifinals due to penalty kicks.

In the first half the Knights had a big chance to put this game one nothing in their favor. In the 19 minutes in the game Sam De Amorim of Methuen passed to Fadi Serhan of Middletown as the Knights did not scored.

One minute later Holyoke cashed in as Michael Grochowski of Westfield scored the first goal of the game to make this 1-0 in favor of Holyoke.

In the first period Holyoke was playing more aggressive then the Knights.

In the 44 minutes of the game Johnathan Diaz of Methuen shot the ball, the goalie  jumped and prevented the Knights from scoring. Diaz was so close to tie the game.

In the first half the Knights had five shots on goal while Holyoke had 10. The Knights had four corner kicks and Holyoke one, both teams also had three offsides.

In the 51 minutes of the game the Knights missed an opportunity to tie the game. The Knights missed a lot of opportunities during the game that they couldn’t cash in.

The Knights in the second half were playing more aggressive than the first half.

Four minutes left before the regulation was over Leonard Rodriguez Ortiz of Methuen scored a game tying shot to force this game to overtime.

“Great feeling you know, I love it I loved it all at the moment at the end of the day it is what it is,” said Coach Eusebio Marote.

The Knights had 11 shots on goal while Holyoke had nine. The Knights had two corner kicks while Holyoke had one. Holyoke had two offside while Knights had none. Knights one fou; and Holyoke five during the second half.

In overtime Diaz almost ended but he missed the shot.

During overtime you play 10 minutes with five minutes in between break.

The first half ove overtime Knights had four shots on goal Holyoke none. The Knights also had one corner kick while Holyoke none. Both team had no offside and no fouls.

In the second half of overtime the referee ejected a fan out of the stadium.

In the second half of the final 10 minutes of overtime, the Knights had five shots on goal while Holyoke had two. Two corner kick for the Knights. Both teams did not had an offside. Holyoke had two fouls while the Knights had zero.

During the penalty shots Holyoke made four goals and the Knights three to eliminate the Knights from the postseason.

“Yeah they only had one chance and they put it away, it’s stupid honestly in my opinion they get one chance and end luckily… it’s just a very unfortunate game to be honest I think we were definitely deserved it more in my opinion, I don’t care what everyone says,” said Coach Marote.

On Sunday, Oct. 23, Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) Women’s  Volleyball defeated NECC Knights three sets to none in the semi finals at The David M. Bartley Center for Athletics & Recreation in Holyoke.

CCRI Knights won set one 25-19, won set two 25-18 and won the third and final set 25-14.

The winner of this game will play in the championship against Mass Bay or Holyoke.

The game officially started at 12:02 pm

In the first set Haileigh LaFlamme scored the first Knights points when the Knights were trailing 3-1.

The Knights went on to score four more points and take a 5-3 lead.

CCRI tied and took the lead but NECC fought back. When the game was tied at nine a nice save by Ashley Martinez of Lawrence prevented  CCRI from scoring.

The game was 12-11 NECC trailing, but a spike from Caroline Burns of Haverhill tied it up at 12.

CCRI then took the lead and increased that lead by three.

The Knights of NECC were losing 21 to 16 when the timeout was called. CCRI was on a run against Knights.

NECC lost to CCRI 25 to 18.

In the second set the Knights of NECC were losing 2-0, but the Knights scored three straight points to make this game 3-2 in favor of NECC Knights.

The game unfortunately was tied at five after CCRI took the lead. The Knights of NECC did not read the ball if it was in or out. When the ball is out and you don’t touch it, it means the point goes to your team but if it was in and you don’t touch it the point goes to the other team.

After the game I interviewed NECC Knight Women’s Volleyball head coach Mike Pelosi of Haverhill and we talked about reading the ball.

“It wasn’t a pattern that I noticed but what I would say about that is we got percentages and we go off our best guess, so we never know, not even the person hitting the ball and serving the ball know where it is going to land so defensively we tried to read patterns and tried to read the trajectory, we tried to read the spin and in or flow with the ball and make an educated guess where is going in or out,” said Pelosi.

The Knights of NECC were down by five, they were losing 13 to 8.

CCRI’s largest lead of the game so far is 11 when they were down 19 to 8. Who was down 19 to 8, I am a bit confused of whether it is CCRI leading or NECC leading at that point.

CCRI increased that lead to 12 when they were losing 21-9.

“I think that CCRI had a very strong roster this year, and I think that’s credit to the coach, they did a good job recruiting and he did a great job training his team, …. CCRI played today, (it’s)very clear to me

that they were practicing and developing with intensity and I have no doubt if I work (at) one of his practices I (would) see the players sprinting around the entire time they (were) very focused…” said Coach Pelosi.

The Knights of NECC were on a 5-1 run when CCRI coach called a time out.

The Knights of NECC were still down 22-14 and they lost the second set 25-18.

In the third set the Knights of NECC got a few points early to begin the set.

Heather Walsh of Harwich made a nice block from keeping the Knights of CCRI from scoring.

The Knights lost 25-14 in set three.

On Saturday Oct. 22, the NECC Knights defeated Bristol Community College 1-0at Ronald F. Arieta Football field in Taunton.

The game started at 4:30 p.m.

In the 17th minutes of the game the Knights had an opportunity to strike first. Sam De Amorim of Methuen shot the ball, but it was saved by the goalkeeper as the Knights did not score.

De Amorim was arguing with the referee, also few other players as well, that Bristol touched the ball but it didn’t gone  the Knights favor. Other players was arguing as well.

In 26 minutes De Amorim scored the only goal for the Knights, that it was the game changer in the game that goal was the difference of the game. De Amorim also scored three goals two days prior in the Oct. 22 contest against Bristol.

“(He’s) been a big player you know for us, definitely big that we got the result today, definitely not easy very difficult, so it is what it is we got the win though,” said Coach Eusebio Morate.

The Knights had four shots on goal and Bristol five shots on goal. The Knights had four fouls, Bristol five, the Knights had two offside, Bristol none. Bristol had four corner kicks while Knights none.

In the 53rd minute of the game Jaden Shaut of Haverhill almost scored on a corner kick as the ball curved and hit the post.

The Knights had their first corner kick of the game in the 58 minutes of the game.

The Knights weren’t playing aggressive throughout the entire game.

In the 64th minute, there was nice save by Anhuar Ramos Garcia of Nashua, N.H.

The Knights had a yellow card in the 74th minutes of the game.

The referee wasn’t consistent for the entire match.

“It’s just a couple calls that make no sense to me and they know it wasn’t 50/50 and they call for the other team so that (got) me pissed a little bit…” said De Amorim.

The Knights had two shots on goal and Bristol eight shots on goal. Bristol also had four fouls and the Knights two. Both teams also had three corner kicks.

On Thursday Oct. 20, Great Bay Community College defeated NECC Knights three sets to none in Portsmouth N.H.

The Knights lost set one and set two identical 25-23, and they lost the third and final set 25-21.

After a long intro ceremony of Great Bay  senior Anna Layfield of Portsmouth N.H. final regular season game it was now time for volleyball action.

The game officially started at 6:13.

It was back and forth game in the beginning of the first set.

Caroline Burns of Haverhill scored the first point of the game, a spike by Kaithlene Perez-Flores tied at five.

The Knights made a few more points but they were trailing. A tip by Burns tied this game at 8 a piece.

The Knights were up by two the score was 10 to 8.

Great Bay came back to tie the game at 12.

The Knights were up by two when they had a 16 to 14 lead over Great Bay.

It was a good match up in the first set, either team could’ve won it, it could’ve gone either way.

The Knights were up 20 to 18 and needed five more points to win the set.

The game was tied 22-22 after assistant head coach, coach Marissa Reardon called a timeout.

After the time out Great Bay went on a 3-1 run to defeat the Knights 25-23 on set one.

The Knights’ momentum in the beginning of the sets was good but in the middle and the end of the set the momentum shifted into a negative way.

“Yep, that happened throughout the sets, we had enough stamina through the beginning and by the end we kinda keep losing it and I think that definitely affects the score,” Coach Reardon said.

In the second set Great Bay started off a little hot.

Great Bay was out of order, the point was awarded to the Knights, Great Bay was up by three, the Knights were losing 9 to 6.

The Knights scored the next three points, including two of them from Heather Walsh of Harwich.

The game was tied at nine and at 10 apiece.

The Knights took a one-point lead over Great Bay and they increased that score by three.

The Knights had a 13-10 lead.

Great Bay scored a few points to inch even closer.

Great Bay then took advantage of some miscommunication for the Knights.

The Knights were up 23-18, two points away from winning the set.

Great Bay went on a 7-0 run to beat the Knights and had commending two sets to none lead.

“I don’t think we were in the correct position I think that definitely affected the scoring,” Reardon said.

In the third set the Knights were down 4-0, which means Great Bay had a 11-0 run going back to the end of the second set that Great Bay finished 7-0.

Ashley Martinez of Lawrence scored the first point of the Knights.

The Knights started a run on their own, the Knights went on a 5-0 run to take 5-4 lead over Great Bay.

Great Bay bounced back and was up by two.

Burns hit the ball to made it 9-8 as the Knights were losing by a point, Perez-Flores tied and Martinez give the Knights the lead.

Just like that the Knights had a 10-9 lead.

Eventually Great Bay was up 14 to 13 when coach Reardon called a timeout.

Great Bay then increased that lead to five.

The Knights cut Great Bay deficit by two as they were losing 22-18.

The Knights lost in set three 25-21 and lost in three straight sets.

I asked coach Reardon what happened during the game — the Knights beat this team back in the Sport and Fitness Center on Oct. 13, three sets to one.

“Yeah, I guess you have good games and you have bad games and I think this is the game that we could’ve won but I don’t think we played the best that we could’ve,” Reardon said.