Quarter Pole Potpourri

Melrose completes the first quarter of the season with a 5-0 record, 3-0 in the Middlesex League. Here are some highlights:

• The Lady Raiders defeated archrival Reading 3-1, coming back from a first set defeat. With the new divisional alignment, Melrose and Reading square off only once each season.
• The first set lost to the Rockets was their only set loss of the season.
• Via extrapolation, Melrose is ranked 4th in the Boston Globe poll, trailing Barnstable, Medfield, and Andover, three of the elite programs in the Commonwealth.
• Although Maxpreps.com has yet to release their inscrutable rankings, they do release individual statistics (highlights below).
• Sarah McGowan is fifth in Massachusetts thus far in kills, with 58. She is 11th in Kills/game.
• Showing some balanced offensive attack, Melrose has three other K/G leaders, Jill Slabacheski at 1.8 (53), Rachel Johnson at 1.6 (66), and Jen Cain at 1.4 (78).
• Setter Brooke Bell is second in assists (109) and eighth in assists per game (6.8).
• Melrose is getting 93 percent of their serves in. The trade-off comes between higher serving percentage and higher number of aces.
• Brooke Bell missed only 2 serves last year, currently is at 49/49. Jen Cain has an impressive 52//53, and J-Mac (Jill MacInnes) has taken the most (79) and is at 77/79.
• Ironically, Melrose has taken either 72 or 73 serves in four of the five matches.
• The team averages 10.4 kills/set.
• The first week of the season, Sarah McGowan was player of the week (Maxpreps.com) and Brooke Bell takes the honor this week.
• Melrose's record for Kills/game (during the "Modern Era" - Maxpreps.com recorded) occurred on October 16, 2009 when the Lady Raiders defeated Barnstable with an average of 15 kills/game.
• Yesterday Melrose started three lefthanders with Brooke, Amanda, and Kayla. That's a first for Melrose to my knowledge.  

At the end of the day, though, there's only one statistic that counts, it's the final score. Quality process has the best chance of producing quality results, and the sacrifices of the players, families, and coaching staff gets reflected in the long-term results.

The Maxpreps.com schedule for the remainder of the season is here. Next week Melrose travels to Wilmington, and hosts Stoneham which is quite likely to come in without a loss at 6-0.