Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Game 13: Melrose 3 Winchester 0 Senior Thesis

Melrose rode the 'belief train' to a straight set home win, 25-22, 25-13, 25-22. Melrose and Winchester both entered tonight's match unbeaten in Middlesex League play. Melrose goes to 9-4 (9-0 in Middlesex League) and Winchester drops to 8-1 in the League. 

Melrose's six seniors - Gia Vlajkovic, Chloe Gentile, Emma Desmond, Ruth Breen, Ava McSorley, and Anna Shoemaker all left fingerprints on this signature win of 2022

Hitters Gia, Chloe, and Anna all had big contributions as did setter Ruth and defenders Ava and Emma (libero). 

Melrose got out to a 22-12 lead in the first set before Winchester battled back to narrow the gap. 

Melrose totally dominated the second set as Winchester seemed stunned. 

And in the third set, both teams were fairly even, Winchester aided by a number of service miscues. But down the stretch Chloe had a nice tip at the net and Gia closed out the action with a pair of bombs. 

The primary story of the match was Melrose's aggressiveness and commitment to hit regardless of the score. INTENT and EXECUTION led to the sweep.

The "big names" are expected to deliver and the UNSUNG HERO of today's match was Anna Shoemaker who delivered key points from the outside. Melrose also blocked well holding down Winchester star Lauren Tian. 

Melrose Notes: Melrose gets back to action Thursday at Lexington. Another factor today was Melrose's punishing attacks on overpasses, drilling the ball into seams or wiping the middle block. 


Melrose adds another 6.8 rating points with the win, 3 for the margin of victory and 3.8 for Winchester's power rating. Over 13 games that should boost Melrose's rating by over 0.5 points and likely raise them to fourth seed. 



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