Inquiring Minds

Some sports lend themselves to statistical analysis, milestones, and machinations. People remember 714 (Babe Ruth home runs) or 755 (Hank Aaron home runs), or 20,000 points in basketball and so forth. Still, at the end of the day, winning is the only statistic that matters.

Coach Celli has updated the statistics at Maxpreps.com and yesterday's game had some fascinating ones.

• Athena Ziavras had 22 kills yesterday
• Brooke Bell added an astonishing career high 44 assists yesterday, going over 500 for the season (last season Colleen Hanscom had 513) 
• Brooke now has 320/322 successful serves for the season, which is certainly among the leaders in the known universe
• Athena is tied for tenth in total kills in Massachusetts in the Maxpreps.com rankings
• Brooke is second in Massachusetts in assists and tenth in assists per game
• Inquiring minds asked how Melrose could replace the 450 kills from Hannah Brickley and Laura Irwin. Athena, Rachel Johnson (138), and Jill Slabacheski have put up 489 with at least one game to go.
• For the season, Melrose has successfully served 94.5 percent; by comparison, two top ranked Division I teams, Andover and Barnstable check in a 92.9 and 88 percent per Maxpreps, although with more service aces. Higher risk usually equals differential reward.

Melrose's next opponent, Fairhaven, checks in with a 19-4 record. Their losses came twice to Case (Division 3, South semifinalist) and New Bedford (lost to Division I, South semifinalist Barnstable). They also defeated Bourne, a perennially competitive team twice.  Like Melrose, they have a younger team, with only two seniors.

Fairhaven's big guns are Kara Charette (333 kills) and Kay Mullen (167 kills), and they appear to use a two setter offense, as their setters have 352 and 195 assists respectively.

Fairhaven is excited to go to the semifinals and face Bishop Fenwick...oops...like Melrose, they lost game one in their sectional, won the next two, lost the fourth, and won the final. Charette had 29 kills in the win, and Melrose will need to control her, just as they kept All-State middle hitter Kirsten Morrison somewhat limited against North Reading.