Looks to rebound as they travel to Wilmington
By JENNIFER GENTILE
WINCHESTER—The Melrose High volleyball team suffered two straight losses over the week that has them at 2-3 but with an enormous amount of season left to regain footing.
On the heels of their 3-1 loss to Reading on Sept 9., they traveled to arch rival Burlington, a team who has been a thorn in Melrose’s side in the past half-decade, and often a team that the ML Freedom title must go through. Sure enough, Burlington pushed Melrose to four sets, and swept the last three to give Melrose their first loss to the Red Devils since 2021. They fell in sets of 25-22, 25-19, 25-19, and 25-16.
Burlington (4-1) was coming off a 4 game winning streak and were led in attacks by junior hitter Emerson Matt with 10 kills while sophomore Abigail Seaman tallied 9.
Melrose offered plenty of talent on its own with senior captain Sabine Wenzel tallying 17 kills, continuing her dominant season. Melrose’s Anna Burns also shined significantly on the line, serving a flawless 100%. The duo came in handy when Melrose took the first set, 25-22. Melrose also benefited from nice serving by Danielle DiGiorgio, who also had 11 digs in the contest. Adriana Santoriello matched those 11 digs and Alisa Dautovic had a strong 22 serve receipts in the back row. Setter Sadie Smith had 23 assists.
Days later, on Sept. 16, Melrose traveled to McCall Middle School in Winchester to face the undefeated Black and Red and were swept in sets of 25-14, 25-20, 25-12.
Despite an early 6-0 lead in set one, Melrose struggled to contain Winchester’s solid hitters who challenged Melrose’s back row. Melrose also had a few leads in set two, thanks to hitting from Wenzel and Santoriello, and adept serving from Adele Akland, but Melrose saw momentum shift towards the experienced Black and Red and came up empty in the third for a Winchester sweep.
Melrose will look to get back in the win column this week when they continue a schedule that is predominantly road games, including Wilmington who they play this evening, Friday, Sept 19, at Wilmington High. They will resume play on Thursday, Sept. 25 at home against Stoneham at 5:30 p.m.