Foreshadowing: Melrose 3-0 Over Fenwick

Melrose and Bishop Fenwick renewed pleasantries today, and Bishop Fenwick proved themselves a very tough customer, as Melrose won 25-15, 25-22, 27-25 at the Middle School Gymnasium.

The Lady Raiders began the evening with a brief ceremony honoring recently minted Hall of Fame coach Scott Celli, closing in on 300 career victories. And they closed it in the Middle School cafeteria with 'coffee and'.

The evening began with a close first set, with ties at 2, 4, 6, and 7 before Melrose started to get separation. Melrose hammered the ball and Fenwick stood tall defensively, reminiscent of last fall's meeting at Andover's Dunn Gymnasium. But Melrose went on a 17-5 run to send the Crusaders a game down.

Melrose used balanced scoring led by Rachel Johnson with four kills, Sarah McGowan and Jen Cain with three apiece, and a pair from Jill Slabacheski as Brooke Bell closes in on 1000 career assists.

The second stanza saw another closely contested set, as Fenwick went out quickly to a 7-3 lead. Melrose rallied to lead 12-9 in no small measure thanks to a triplet of Johnson winners, as Rachel emerges as Melrose's number two option offensively. The Crusaders evened the score at 13, before Melrose again used hammer and defensive tong to get a 21-16 lead, only to see the visitors crawl within a pair at 22-20 and 24-22 before a Fenwick service error (one of four in the set) unhorsed the Crusaders.

Melrose had eleven kills led by a sextet of Sarah's smashes in conjunction with Rachel's offensive output. Of course, strong work in the back row among tri-captain Alyssa DiRaffaele along with Amanda Commito and Jill MacInnes deserves mention.

The third set was among the closest sets Melrose has played this season, with another offensive explosion from the middle. The set saw FOURTEEN ties at 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 24, and 25 as the visitors, trailing by as much as 24-21 refused to go away, and Melrose couldn't nail down critical winners.

With the score tied at 25, Sarah McGowan drilled a winner and a Fenwick error sealed the win.

Sarah had another huge set with six kills, Rachel rammed home five, and Kayla Wyland added a pair of vital winners en route to the victory.

Game Analysis: Bishop Fenwick came in with a plan, and executed it well, preventing Brooke Bell from finding holes in the middle, and using solid back row play to keep Melrose's outside attack at bay. Much like at Central Catholic, Melrose had a relentless middle attack, with double digit outputs from McGowan and Johnson, who has become Robin to Sarah's Batman. Holy Cow!