14 - 3. Melrose Maintains First Place Tie with 3 - 1 Win at Burlington

Melrose went into a "must-win" scenario at Burlington and emerged with a 25-12, 22-25, 25-17, 25-16 victory. 

The win keeps Melrose in a first place Middlesex League tie with Winchester. 

Burlington jumped out to a quick 3-1 lead before Melrose responded with a run to 6-3, led by a pair of Victoria Crovo kills. Victoria had been unavailable for the first match against the Red Devils because of injury. The Lady Raiders gradually extended the lead to 14-8 before going on an 11-4 run to close out Burlington. Unofficially, Victoria Crovo had nine kills in the set. 

The second set began with all Burlington with a 9-0 run. Melrose made a remarkable comeback to take a 12-11 lead with key kills from Saoirse Connolly and Lydia Lombardo before Burlington struck back to lead 16-13. Melrose rallied to tie at 19 with four kills from Victoria, but Burlington put on a final 6-3 charge to win the stanza. 

Melrose controlled the third frame early leading 8-3 and 10-5. Burlington got as close as 17-14, but Melrose rallied behind a Jill Mercer service run to go up 22-14. A pair of Crovo kills down the stretch shut down Burlington. 

Burlington jumped out to a 7-3 lead only to have Melrose even the score at 8. The match turned into a seesaw battle with ties at 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 before Melrose erupted for a 12-3 run to clinch victory. It was a team effort with three Cat Torpey and Saoirse Connolly kills and a pair from Lydia Lombardo and Victoria Crovo. 

Attack box score. 

Division 2 standings (as of 10/17/2016)

Box scores courtesy of Dick Collis.