Game 5: Melrose 3 Brockton 0

Melrose (5-0) hosted Brockton in a 'feature' game tonight, and came away with a knockout, dominating the Boxers 25-8, 25-12, and 25-10.

Melrose brought its 'A' game and had the Boxers reeling early and late, and the match was not as close as the score indicated.

After Brockton evened the score at one in the first set, Melrose then went on an 11-0 run highlighted by Jill MacInnes serves, crisp passing, and some thundering attacks by Sarah McGowan mixed in with clever attacks from Sydney Doherty. The lead ultimately extended to 24-7 with another lengthy service run from Brooke Bell.

For the set, Melrose had no service errors, and unofficially ten kills including four for Jen Cain and a brace apiece for McGowan, Doherty, and Rachel Johnson.

The second set saw slightly more competitive scoring early (Melrose leading 4-3), followed by a 17-1 explosion to widen the gap to 21-4. Melrose scored more often from Boxer errors and McGowan aces (4). Substitutions ensued and Melrose closed out the set 25-12, amidst service-error free volleyball and stout defense. Cain  and McGowan continued to dominate offensively.

The third stanza saw more of the same, with Melrose finding a 12-2 lead after trailing 2-1 early. McGowan went on a killing spree at the net with a flurry of overpasses the trigger. She had six kills among the first thirteen points and eight for the set.

Again it was 'garbage time' early, with an opportunity for reserves to get some action. Melrose had just one service error for the match and finished off the set with an authoritative Doherty kill.

Lady Raider and Game Notes: Brockton had some good athletes but Melrose's defense, terrific passing, and offensiveness aggressiveness figuratively never allowed the Boxers off the ropes. Melrose made extremely few errors defensively and capitalized on Brockton errors for a one-sided win.

With some injuries or illness (Annalisa DeBari and Cassidy Barbaro), Ashley Harding sat on the varsity bench today.

Melrose hosts Wilmington Friday.