Melrose faced destiny in its rematch with its Division 2 North finals opponent from last season, and sent North Reading home empty-handed, with a powerful 25-21, 25-17, 25-19 victory at the Middle School Gymnasium.
With the victory Melrose achieved another 20 win season and advances to Andover's Dunn Gymnasium for the D2 North finals for the eighth consecutive season. Melrose accomplished this with one senior (tri-captain Athena Ziavras), two juniors (tricaptains Alyssa DiRaffaele and Jill Slabacheski), and five sophomores among its top eight rotation.
Before the large crowd, Melrose started slowly as North Reading jumped out quickly to lead 7-2 behind All-State middle hitter Kirsten Morrison and senior tricaptain Bailey Eis. But Melrose found its footing, starting to build an offensive melody, a theme that would continue from there out. Brooke Bell found a hole off the pass to close it to 7-3, and Sarah Morrison tipped in a kill. North Reading extended the lead to 11-7, but Melrose put a 9-0 run on to remove all doubt. From there, the Hornets got within three at 19-16 and 22-20, but outstanding defense forced North Reading errors, and the hosts closed it out with a beautiful two handed push to the corner from Athena.
Unofficially, Melrose had eleven kills and one service error. Athena and Brooke had a trio of kills apiece, Rachel Johnson and Sarah a pair each.
The second set saw the emergence of the player of the match, sophomore Kayla Wyland, whose insertion into the rotation after the Reading game marked a turning point in the season. The Johnson-Ziavras-Wyland front dominated, and Wyland was the kryptonite for Morrison, as she and Rachel owned the action at the net. Melrose had a record (as best as we can recall) sixteen kills in the stanza, including six for Kayla, four for Athena, three for Sarah, and two for Rachel. Kayla simply dominated with instinctive, athletic play at the net.
Melrose went out 5-2 in game two, and after the Hornets closed within one, Melrose moved into overdrive, with a 19-7 rampage feature four Wyland kills. North Reading time outs and efforts from Morrison simply proved too little and Melrose closed the frame on a visitor service error.
The final set saw North Reading determined to make a stand. Melrose jumped ahead 3-1, but the Green and Gold rebounded with a 6-1 run to go up 7-4. Melrose continued to battle and tied the game at 8, 9, 12, and 13, before Melrose broke ahead 15-13 with a pair of Ziavras kills. North Reading wouldn't go away, evening the game at 16 and 17, but Melrose benefited from Hornet miscues to go up 20-17. The Hornets got a point at 18, but the final 8-2 Melrose run completed the raid and the ginger ale was on ice.
Melrose added another 11 kills, including a crippling smash by Jill at 24, three more Kayla kills, two each from Brooke, Sarah, and Athena.
Game Analysis: Coaches Scott Celli and Steve Wall decided just after mid-season that a lineup realignment could create better blocking and stabilize the defense, and get another strong hitter into the mix in Sarah McGowan. He used a similar formula in 2003 en route to Melrose's first D2 North championship. What the coaches couldn't know was that the team would develop rapidly, the communication would improve and the offense would benefit as much as the defense. Jen Cain played flawlessly on defense.
Tonight the young Lady Raiders simply grew up against an experienced, tournament-tested opponent (19-2) with an All-State middle hitter. They overwhelmed an upper echelon team and played their toughest in the big moments, earning a trip to the 'ship. The Lady Raiders play for the D2 North title Saturday at Andover at 3 P.M.
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