Bourne girls volleyball reaches Final Four for 2nd time in three years

Two years ago, Bourne Volleyball player Leah Barlow, watched as the then-No. 5 ranked Lady Canalmen reached the Final Four. She was a sophomore on junior varsity then, and even then, she knew what type of accomplishment that was.

"Even that was a completely surreal feeling," she said. "I got to take a picture, and touch the trophy after, but I wasn't really in the mindset that I was going to have one."

Even while watching it happen, she thought reaching it herself was another story. That day two years ago of touching the trophy planted a seed in her.

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Fast forward two years later, and Barlow got her hands on the trophy once again, after the No. 2 Lady Canalmen (18-5) beat No. 7 Whitinsville Christian 3-0 (25-13, 25-9, 25-8) to advance to the MIAA Division 5 Final Four on Thursday.

The feeling this time around was different being apart of her own Final Four appearance.

"Unreal," Barlow said. "It's honestly insane. The adrenaline was crazy, (and) I sobbed right away."

Barlow is one of two seniors on this year's team. The other is Elena Timo, and the two played their final match in front of their home fans in the win.

That atmosphere fit the occasion. Bourne's student section showed out, filling the arena with noise, and even featuring a student playing an electric guitar.

"I can still feel the goosebumps, the fan section is insane," Barlow said. "Elena and I kept looking at each other all night because we started this together in seventh grade. We decided we were going to play together, and we spent the last five years grinding it out every single day together, and to finish together in this gym is amazing."

Timo agreed and said emotions were high in her home finale.

It was a lot...(I'm) going to miss it a lot," Timo said. "I think that they've (her years playing volleyball for Bourne) been the best years of my entire life."

The pair are two of Bourne's captains this season, and Bourne head coach David Moore said the pair's leadership has helped his team this year.

"They've done a really good job of that," Moore said about their leadership. "I think it's huge. They're learning that role as they go along. They didn't just come in and go 'oh this is on us,' they're kind of seeing the responsibilities they have."

The Elite Eight win was the Lady Canalmen's third successive sweep in this 2023 playoff run. Bourne has now dispatched No. 31 Georgetown, No. 15 Sutton, and now No. 7 Whitinsville Christian, all without dropping a set.

However, not all sweeps are created equal, and head coach David Moore said his team executed much better than they did in their Round of 32 win.

"More relaxed I think tonight, just more themselves," Moore said. "I thought it was a better, smoother (match)."

It's not just the coach that felt the difference between the two rounds. Barlow felt it as well, and said after the game the difference showed in a couple of key areas.

"I think the communication was there, the effort was there, and the biggest piece was I didn't see a single player on the court get into their heads and dwell on any of the mistakes," she said.

That relaxation that Moore talked about came because the team was prepared entering the match. While that comes down to effort in practice, there's also been an underlying key to the Lady Canalmen's preparation.

All season long, the team has been reading the book "The Champion Teammate," by Jerry Lynch and John O'Sullivan. Each week, the players are assigned a chapter, and they discuss it as a team.

This week's chapter was about winning the day and preparation, and Moore said the way his team has prepared all season, has fueled their postseason success.

"It's not about going in and having the pressure of winning on you, but it's going in to compete, your best performance," Moore said. "That evolves over all the time you've been practicing. When you come into our practice, they're running through cones, they're jumping over cones, they're doing sit ups, they're doing all these fundamental things that I think have gotten them here."

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He's seeing the work translate in his players, and he feels it's giving them an advantage.

"Win the day is about doing the things ahead of time, (so) the battle is won before you ever take the court," Moore said. "So I think they're getting confident because of the time they've put in."

The Lady Canalmen talked about the chapter earlier in the day, and the benefits from the reading showed on the court.

"This week we had to take it one day at a time," Barlow said. "Coming into today we were all a little bit nervous, but we took the steps to get here. We talked about a lot about how you have to go into a game to compete, and not to win. Even when we go against teams that aren't necessarily at the same skill level, above us, (or) below us, we have to respect them, and we have to go into the game knowing that we're going to compete with them."

Timo agreed saying the chapter's focus lied in the preparation.

"I think we came in here having confidence in being ready to compete, and knowing our opponent, and what we had to do to get it done."

The win has the Lady Canalmen on the doorstep of the State Championship game. Awaiting the Lady Canalmen in the state semifinals is No. 3 Turner Falls (21-2). The Lady Canalmen are feeling confident, and Barlow said after the win, she felt the team is coming together at the perfect time.

"I think we've really come together more as a team," Barlow said. "We were in a little slump for a little bit, but we've really brought it back. We've been in the same mindset everyday, and we just keep working together, and we talk about it before every practice and every game."

André Simms covers high school sports for the Times. Contact him at asimms@capecodonline.com. Follow him on X/Twitter: @that1guyandre.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Bourne girls volleyball defeats Whitinsville Christian in Elite Eight