Melrose maintains the #3 slot in Division 2, dropping about 0.1 ratings points after beating Stoneham (#36 in Division 3).
ML12 strong performances, schedule restructuring, and opponent rating (strength of schedule) place five teams in the Division 2 rankings.
Melrose's 4.1205 places them 11th overall across all divisions.
Melrose travels to Woburn today.
Return to The Leadership Moment of Michael Useem for a framework:
Player and team development showed admirable growth. Neither young nor experienced players come with mental toughness guarantees. A signature win helps to inspire belief.
What needs improvement?
Aggressiveness and consistency build the foundation of excellence. Both can always improve. The "third wish" is for better health.
What could we do differently?
Assembling lineups amidst absences and health restrictions challenge any coach. Everyone should want to play more. As Colonel Nathan Jessup said in A Few Good Men, "You want me on that wall. You need me on that wall."
What are the enduring lessons?
The first half reinforced the benefits of a challenging schedule. "Iron sharpens iron." The second half gets tougher with competitive league and non-league contests, and the Middlesex League tournament. "The wind blows hardest at the top of the mountain." That's why you play the game.
Lagniappe. Learn from Lasso.
Writing serves communication, exposition, literature, and entertainment. And noise. Mom reminded us, “Who died and made you king?”
Polls and rankings (Noise)
Friday - Boston Globe
Monday - MassHSVB.com
Monday/Thursday - MaxPreps.com
Power Rankings (Signal)
Tuesday and Friday 11:00 A.M. - MIAA.net
As of Friday, Melrose had a Power Ranking of 4.2267, good for third in Division 2 and eighth overall among ranked MIAA schools.
MacBeth, Act 5, Scene 5
The blog is mostly noise. You provide the action.
Ever tried. Ever failed.
No matter. Try again.
Fail again. Fail better.
-Samuel Beckett
Small differences often decide wins and losses. At higher levels, it's not about "who wants it more." Does anyone think that the Super Bowl loser didn't care enough?
You may know the saying, "Baseball is a game of failure." Seven players hit at least .300 in Major League Baseball this season. In Massachusetts, eight volleyball players have a hitting percentage ((kills-errors)/attacks) over .400. Success means failing less, failing better.
Mickey Mantle, a Yankee all-time great, struck out over 1,700 times, the equivalent of three full seasons. He made twenty all-star teams, hit over 500 homers, and helped win seven World Series. His production overwhelmed his failures.
The French philosophical novelist Voltaire wrote, "Better is the enemy of good." The pursuit of perfection can interfere with progress and success.
"Control what you can control." The uncontrollable happens a lot. Focus, "be where your feet are" and give your best and nobody can ask for more.
Lagniappe. Another saying dictates that players should not play like robots. Bryce Paup implies that efficiency-reacting robots make plays. Be good at the basics. Boring excellence works.
Lagniappe 2. Volleyball Gold Medalist Kerry Walsh Jennings says, "I want to fight for it every day."
All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose institution.
Observations are "snapshots in time." Some are "Big Picture" and others illuminate granular (attention to detail) situations.
1. "Every day is player development day."
Teams go as far as the performance of their talent. MVB has a lot of potential because of projections of the talent.
2. Team first
Teamwork is a "force multiplier," making the whole greater than the sum of the parts. Teamwork manifests with communication, gratitude, and shared sacrifice.
Hard work is contagious as is energy and competition. Being competitive doesn't prevent excellence in working together. Working out with a teammate or a group helps raise everyones performance.
3. Strategy (technique, volleyball IQ)
Strategy reduces to both macro (situational awareness) and micro (reading the play at hand). Execution requires the triad of people, strategy, and operations (making the play).
Players need to know what to do when there's something to do (e.g. "next best action") and what to do when there's nothing to do (e.g. keep the ball in play).
4. Physicality
Physical maturity and athleticism vary with individual makeup, age, and physical training.
Your game evolves. Take the opportunity to grow your game finding elements to work on daily.
Lagniappe. Train hand-eye coordination.
A successful neighbor used to say, "The thing of it is."
Simplify performance.
1. Make a difference.
"What is your MVB skill?" What gets you on the court and keeps you there?
2. Build trust.
When asked about his team's execution, Coach John McKay said, "I'm in favor of it." Execution is about PEOPLE, STRATEGY, OPERATIONS. Earning the coaches' trust - playing well with force - builds trust.
3. Raise others up.
The back row defender who makes good passes and few mistakes helps the setter help the hitters.
The blocker who gets "hands on" the ball, even as an undersized player, helps the back row.
The setter who gets there and makes plays is the quarterback who wins.
4. Impact winning.
Talk energizes and directs. Positivity matters. Consistency and aggression win.
5. Be radiant.
You've all read, "Charlotte's Web" and you probably don't remember.
"When Charlotte's web said RADIANT, he did everything possible to make himself glow." The back row of Anna, Dani, Gen, Adriana, Alisa, Sabrina and others doesn't get headlines. Shanking balls, misdirected passes, and errant downballs get attention. The back row of MVB 26 is RADIANT.
ACHIEVEMENT = PERFORMANCE x TIME
Lagniappe. Five ML12 teams are 8-2 or better. Much volleyball remains to be played.
“Under the harvest moon, a murder of crows gathered in a tall oak outside the gym. Who can know why?
Inside, fans held their breath. A free ball fluttered over; Melrose attacked. A collision followed and the ball dropped. The final point posted on the scoreboard.
Young women screeched, others streamed off the bench. Hugs and ceremonial shoves ensued, whatever that means. Please do not knock down Anna or Dani or Gen or Kayla.
The crows could not care less.”
You write your narrative, knowing that minstrels will not sing ballads, but maybe you’ll get ink in the Boston papers.
57 teams in Division 2, Barnstable to Burlington, Marblehead to Minnechaug, chase volleyball supremacy. Every season ends in tears, tears of disappointment or joy.
The bruises, the muscle aches, the frustration over performance go unseen. Players tell families, “you don’t know how it feels.” Parents say, “Go on. Tell us.”
There’s reading to do, unfinished papers, and college applications for some. Or Driver’s Ed and text messages and a family birthday.
And trying to make sense of the world and relationships and flop sweat when down a set.
“You can do this.”
Lagniappe. Persist.
Lagniappe 2. Every memory differs. Some register only a little. Others last a lifetime - births, deaths, the thrill of victory and agony of defeat.
View on Threads
Watch the final play of the Newburyport game.
Play starts at about 1:58:57.
Anna Burns makes a phenomenal adjustment off the ceiling early in the play and Elise Marchais tips an attack. There is no slow motion available but you can "pause" the action repeatedly. Early at 1:59:17 the outcome is in doubt.
At 1:59:18, all six Melrose players simultaneously erupt. No confusion, no hesitation. The moment captures the "stakes" and the "ticking clock" that author Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code) masters in his work.
Recognition rewards focus.
"You are what your record says you are." - Bill Parcells
Every team faces turnover and tradeoffs. Melrose graduated Division 1 Middle Blocker Sabine Wenzel (369 kills in 2025) and returned ten rising juniors and sophomores.
Area experts predicted Winchester and Reading to be at the top, followed by a scramble of other competitive clubs. Predictions hit the mark.
Winchester (7-0) and Reading (6-1) remain at the top of the standings, with a logjam following with Melrose, Burlington, and Belmont all at 5-2.
On any given day, Woburn, Wakefield, Lexington, and Arlington provide potent opposition.
The one negative occurred as the injury bug circled. Injuries knocked out junior quad-captain Ella Friedlaender for the season, Adriana Santoriello missed a pair of games, and Alisa Dautovic plays on a pitch count at fifty percent. Sophomore setter Leila Kiggundu missed multiple games.
Serving
Melrose deploys a 'fire team' of potent servers - Dani DiGiorgio, Anna Burns, Alisa, Elise Marchais, Sabrina McArt and Adriana. Gen Overlan missed only two serves of almost a hundred. Alisa delivered the longest run (19) in recent years on Friday.
Back Row
Arguably, the DS crew of Anna, Dani, Gen, Adriana, and Alisa forms the strength of the team. They've improved over the season, and Anna often acts as a second setter during "out of system" play.
Setting
ML12 All-star Sadie Smith returned even better. She brings mobility and decision-making to set the pins, the middle, and sometimes the back. She boosted her second ball attack, blocks well, and ranks among the best defensive setters in MVB history.
Leila had limited chances so far but shows capability beyond her age.
Blocking
MVB 26 blocking has exceeded expectations although still a work in progress. Graduating the 6'6" Wenzel impacted, but blocking improved outside with the 'arrival' of Amelie Johnson and growth of Amelie, Alisa, and Elise Marchais. Melrose has four capable middles - Sabrina, sophomore Lorena Contin, Maggie Shoemaker, and Elise who can play any position on the court.
Attacking
Melrose needed maturation from its "closer by committee." They're on track to have at least four players - Elise, Adriana, Amelie, and Sabrina with over a hundred kills and if healthy, Alisa joins that list. Opponents cannot "load up" on one player because of the attack distribution.
Depth
Depth builds antifragility. Depth rescued the club from injuries. Alisa, Adriana, and Elisa can play all six. Sabrina might.
In limited action Kayla Ton and Mia Sasso performed well.
Culture
Coaching and team leadership foster “team first” culture. The sophomores played together for five years. Everyone sacrifices. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Coaching
Scott Celli brings twenty-seven seasons at Melrose and a MAVCA Hall of Fame resume. Assistants Ryan Celli and Gia Vlajkovic add All-Scholastic credentials.
The second half awaits. Play with fun and force. And enjoy the ride.
Alisa Dautovic gets recognized for 19 (check the game video) consecutive service points.
Volleyball changed to 25 point scoring in about 2004. Prior to that, matches were best of three with 30 points per set. "Ancient" records undercount statistics by a small amount.
In 2003, Marianne Foley had 28 consecutive service points in a North Shore League match at Hamilton-Wenham. That record will stand forever.
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” - from Coraline, by Neil Gaiman
Twenty-three years ago, Melrose headed to the postseason. No volleyball tradition, no banners, no glorious predictions.
They reached the Sectional Finals where they faced Arlington Catholic, the same team that eliminated them the previous year.
AC boasted size (a pair of 6'2" middles) and a 22-0 record, having not lost a set all year.
Melrose showed up and left with a sweep. Dragons can be beaten.
View on Threads
Curiosity earned a promotion when Ted Lasso said, "Be curious, not judgmental."
The 'Thread' suggests a question for parents, "Did you ask a good question today?"
Which raises, "What is a good question?"
Sara Blakely said that each Saturday dinner, her father asked, "What have you failed at this week?"
Or in "Finding Forrester," Sean Connery tells a young protege the purpose of questions - "The object of a question is to obtain information that matters to us and to no one else."
Curiosity opens doors to worlds otherwise unavailable.
The novice volleyball fan might ask, "Is the line in or out?" It depends. When the ball lands on it, "in." When serving, if your foot lands on it, "out."
What is a volleyball rotation error? (AI answer)
A volleyball rotation error occurs when players are not in the correct relative positions at the instant the server contacts the ball. The six players must preserve their rotational order: each front-row player must be closer to the net than the corresponding back-row player, and players on the left and right must remain properly ordered relative to the player beside them. They do not have to stand in fixed spots, and they can move freely once the serve is contacted; the rule is about overlap at that one moment. A rotation error can also occur if the wrong player serves. The usual penalty is a point and the serve to the opponent, with the team corrected into proper order.
A team can be in the correct serving order but commit an overlap/positional fault because one player has crossed too far left, right, forward, or backward relative to the required adjacent player at serve contact.
Playing a lot proves necessary but not sufficient to improve. Be curious about:
The MIAA Power Rankings blend Margin of Victory (MOV) and Strength of Schedule (SOS).
What's vital is their description of "iterative." The SOS averages the rankings of all previous opponents up to the most recent. Here's where ChatGPT Plus steps in (lightly edited).
MOV is easy. If "sets won minus sets lost" is 20 and you played 10 matches, then 20/10 equal MOV of 2. Currently, Melrose is +13/9 = 1.4444.
SOS is different. The most important passage is essentially this: any game played across the state can affect the ratings of any and all teams, even if only by a few decimal places. That is a more than simply saying SOS is iterative.
For your Melrose example, our earlier calculation after Newburyport was only a first-order estimate. We treated Newburyport’s 4.1719 rating as frozen. The actual MIAA calculation does not. If Newburyport subsequently beats good teams, its rating rises, which raises Melrose’s opponent-rating component retroactively. If Newburyport’s future results disappoint, Melrose’s benefit from that win can shrink. And the same thing happens with every opponent already played.
The MIAA’s published ranking sheets reinforce this definition directly: they label “OPP. RATING” as the average of a team’s opponents’ overall ratings, rather than win percentage or a static schedule score.
This produces an important implication that is easy to miss:
You don't merely root for the teams you are about to play. After you play them, you keep rooting for them.
A win over a 4.2 opponent is not permanently worth “4.2 SOS points.” That opponent might become a 6.0 team—or a 1.5 team—and your rating migrates with it. Personal calculations become estimates.
It also explains why early-season MIAA rankings can look peculiar. With relatively few games played, one opponent's rating can move sharply, and because the system is interconnected, those changes propagate. As the schedule fills in, the network acquires more data and ratings generally become more stable.
And this is why the new ML12 schedule structure matters even more. Fewer games against chronically weak teams does not merely avoid one low SOS input on the date of the match. Every opponent remain attached to your rating for the rest of the season.
In shorthand:
MOV is mostly history.
SOS remains alive.
As Coach Scott Celli might say, "You play the schedule." Play well and wish our previous opponents well.
The basil harvest is in and I used a fraction to make pesto.
With respect to nut allergy, we don't use pine nuts and I prefer the pesto without mint or thyme, but include Bottura's recipe. I use generic grated Parmesan cheese. Last time I checked (awhile ago) Parmegiano-Reggiano was over $20 a pound, so this is a bit more economical.
His restaurant in Northern Italy was voted the best in the world.
This was his grandmother's recipe. He recommends fusilli as the pesto adheres to the shape better.
INGREDIENTS
2 Make the pesto. While the pasta is cooking, make the pesto sauce: Halve the garlic clove and rub its cut sides along the inside of your blender. Pour in the olive oil, then add the basil. Strip the mint leaves from the stem, add the leaves to the blender, then add the stem to the boiling pasta water. Remove as many thyme leaves as you can from the branch, add them to the blender, then add the branch to the boiling water as well. Add half the Parmigiano and half the bread crumbs to the blender. With the blender on, slowly stream in ½ cup of ice-cold water, adding more water by the tablespoonful, until the sauce blends smooth
MVB 26 held serve at Newburyport. The rankings show MVB remains at the #3 seed in Division 2 and #11 overall (all divisions) power ranking, despite beating the Clippers.
Whatever.
This will revise as the "math" of MOV and SOS literally not adding up.
"Chop wood, carry water."
Approaching the halfway mark of the regular season, team and individual accomplishments stand out.
State rankings: Updated MIAA power rankings usually drop at 11:00 AM. Melrose will stay at #3 in Division 2.
Updated state leaders:
Kills - Elise Marchais #36 with 84.
Assists - Sadie Smith #6 with 243.
Digs - Anna Burns #32 with 113.
Melrose hosts the Stoneham Spartans today. Ancient Spartan mothers were famous for this quote, "Come home with your shield or on it."
This admonition, recorded by the historian Plutarch in his Sayings of Spartan Women, was spoken by a Spartan mother to her son as she handed him his shield (hoplon) before battle. The saying emphasized that a soldier should either return victorious carrying his shield or die on it, but never discard it in cowardly retreat, as doing so endangered the phalanx formation.* (AI assist)
Sport provides you a platform to show who you are as a competitor, teammate, and sportswoman.
Nelson Mandela attended community meetings as a child; his father spoke last. That afforded him an opportunity to hear and process the words and opinions of those who spoke earlier.
Think about how our words and actions will land on the 'community' around us.
MVB 26 impresses us most because of who they are as people.
Phrases stick with us. Coach Ellis Lane told us the same things again and again. Wisdom endures.
"Sacrifice."
Team first. We over me. Your choices affect the whole team.
All of you and your families invest time, energy, and money to be part of MVB. Sacrifice is a choice. Hard work is a choice. We control little in life - attitude, choices, effort. Some sacrifices don't show. J-Mac's mom said that Jill was covered with bruises from diving on the court.
Sacrifice guarantees nothing, although as Kahlil Gibran said, "It is when you give of yourself that you truly give."
"The ball is gold."
Gold is precious. You don't give away your gold. Coach meant "take care of the basketball." Teams give away games with bad reads, poor hitting decisions, and loss of focus that shows up in physical or mental mistakes. Warren Buffett said that if you keep all your eggs in one basket, watch that basket carefully.
"I'm pleased but I'm not satisfied."
Be an "ambitious giver." When you give more, you get more. Coach reminded us that an individual win mattered but less than the big picture. Bring the best version of yourself every day...and do it over the following day.
Lagniappe. Study great players. EDIRx5. Explain. Demonstrate. Imitate. Repeat five times.
"The sentences you write are in flux. You go over them, trimming, revising, and auditioning words, until you arrive at the sentence you were after all along." - Anne Lamott in Good Writing
Writing differs from volleyball. The "short game," tips and rolls, owns a place in your toolbox.
"In point of fact" becomes "in fact." "Put a finger on it" suffers compared with "point out." Having written much, I abused readers often.
Lamott's husband, Neal Allen shares: "A new dawn" becomes "Dawn." "Tax haven of the rich becomes "tax haven." "Bedridden in a hospital" becomes "hospitalized."
Soccer or rugby enthusiasts say, "Into touch." Volleyball says, "Out."
In baseball, a player leading the league in average, homers, and runs batted in becomes "Triple Crown winner." For MVB, All-State, Globe and Herald All-Scholastic (Gia), becomes "Triple Crown winner."
The threepeat of sectional championships from 2003-2005 becomes "The First Dynasty" and the fourpeat from 2009-2012 the Second Dynasty, the Second outshining the First.
Winning big carries an enduring luster. Legendary hoop coach Don Meyer saw a disconnect in that "most parents would rather see their son be All-State than see the team win States." Each of the Second Dynasty years had great players (e.g. Hannah Brickley, Athena Ziavras, Brooke Bell, and Sarah McGowan). The 2012 team gets more ink for a State Title.
Remember what Abraham Lincoln wrote, "I apologize for having written such a long letter because I did not have the time to write a shorter one."
Lagniappe. Be seen, be heard, and make a difference.
Lagniappe 2. Sometimes being there for someone means "being there."
