Volleyball Captures Opener 3-0

The Melrose Lady Raiders volleyball team traveled to Wilmington and came away with a 3-0 win. Melrose won 25-17, 25-12, and 25-10 gaining momentum over the course of the day.

Unofficially, Hannah Brickley led Melrose with ten kills, and Sophomore Athena Ziavras made an impressive varsity starting debut with eight kills.

Melrose took the lead 1-0 in Game 1 and quickly moved out to a 6-2 advantage sparked by a pair of kills and a block by Hannah. Wilmington managed to close to 9-7 before Melrose went on a three point run with Laura Irwin on the service line. Wilmington again fought back to trail 16-14 before Melrose went on a seven point spree including six points and three aces with Athena on service.

Game 2 saw more of the same with the Lady Raiders jumping out to a 10-2 advantage with more service points from Athena. Wilmington could never get back into the game, with Laura, Athena, and Hannah all delivering a trio of kills. Laura also added a pair of blocks.

Wilmington took a 1-0 lead in Game 3, but Melrose struck back with a "snowman", scoring 8 consecutive points while Siena Mamayek served. Melrose dominated play, with four kills from Hannah, three from Athena and a pair from Laura. Setter Colleen Hanscom was consistent throughout setting up the Melrose front row and providing her usual solid defense.

Although statistics are unofficial, Melrose showed good consistency, with eleven kills in each of the stanzas.

Coach Celli will be looking for improvement in the area of service errors. Melrose had nine service errors during the match, and beating top competition becomes problematic without high service consistency.

Score by Periods

Melrose.... 25 25 25

Wilmington 17 12 10


Melrose travels to Stoneham Wednesday for their Middlesex League opener, before entertaining archrival Reading in the home opener Thursday at 4:00 in the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School Gymnasium.

In JV action today, the freshman laden team may an impressive debut, defeating Wilmington 25-20 and 25-10.