Melrose hosted Bedford in a D2 North Semifinal and departed with its eleventh consecutive to the trip to the sectional championship, winning 25-16, 25-15, 25-17. Melrose will face Bishop Fenwick Saturday for the Division 2 North title.
Bedford had sent a pair of Middlesex League teams packing, but the young Buccaneers didn't have enough to end Melrose's season. 7
Bedford took the opening pair of points, but Marissa Cataldo answered with a kill, and her buddies piled on ten of the next twelve points to go up 11-4. But Bedford didn't quit, getting closer to 12-7 before Melrose opened it up to 16-9 and cruised to the win. Annalisa DeBari had a trio of kills abetted by a pair by fab frosh Victoria Crovo. Melrose had no service errors in the set.
Set two had an eerie cyclicality, with Melrose leading 5-1 only to trail after a 6-1 Bedford run, then answer with a 7-1 run of their own to lead 13-7. From there out they simply expanded the lead and coasted. Allie Nolan was excellent with a pair of kills, Victoria and Cat each adding 1.5 kills (via the double block).
Bedford came out strong to lead 4-0 in the third, but a six point Melrose run sparked by Maave Moriarty gave Melrose the lead, only to see ties at 7 through 10. Melrose proceeded to ice the set and match with a 10-0 run.
Annalisa piled on another three kills, Victoria and Marissa a pair, and Meri Lessing broke through for three down the strength.
Game Summary: Bedford did a lot of good things including blocking and well-coordinated defense. They just lacked the offensive consistency needed to overcome Melrose's total game, and Bedford hurt themselves with nine service errors. Jill MacInnes led another successful effort by the back row, and Melrose did enough to win easily.
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