Game 5: Melrose 3 Lexington 0

Melrose played its fourth road game of the campaign, traveling to always tough Lexington (2-0), emerging with a 25-23, 25-22, 25-22 sweep.

The win gets Melrose to 3-2 and levels its ML12 record at 2-2. 

The word for the day was resilience, as Melrose continues short-handed with Adriana Santoriello out and Alisa Dautovic playing at most half time as she recovers from injury. Leila Kiggundu remains out. Ella Friedlaender is out for the season. 

The first set was pretty much an exchange of punch for punch. Melrose had a good start from "Lefty" Amelie Johnson with three early kills and excellent defense from the back among Anna Burns, Dani DiGiorgio, and Gen Overlan. 

It was anyone's set until Melrose captured the final two points from 23-23 to take the lead. 

The second set was mostly more of the same, punching and countering from the unbeaten Minutewomen. Their excellent setter, sophomore Ela Sari continually created high danger chances for the Lexington front line. 

Again Melrose hung close throughout and closed out the set from 22 all with a three point run. Kayla Ton had a couple of key serves off the bench and Sabrina "Air" McArt pounded home critical attacks. 

The third set was a different animal. Lexington opened up a quick 4-2 lead before an error gave Melrose the serve. Alisa "Sundance" Dautovic burned in three consecutive rockets to put Melrose in front. 

Melrose extended the lead and had what seemed like a prohibitive 23-16 lead. The young Lexington team refused to fold and forced Melrose skipper Scott Celli to take a pair of timeouts down the stretch. At 24-22, Elise Marchais scored with an outside attack and MVB captured the win in the shadow of Battle Green. 

Three up:

An impossible task as pretty much everyone who played added to the win. The back row played their most consistent match of the season.

 

Melrose will get a few days off before back to action with a homestand next week. Getting healthy is the top priority. 

More on these matches will follow in the ensuing days.  

Melrose Notes:

Lexington is getting underway on their new $656 million dollar high school. Expect the athletic facilities to be top notch. 

Melrose traveled well with an enthusiastic cheering section. Noteworthy that Lacy and Devin, Alisa's martial arts instructor, made the trip from Melrose.