By AMANDA CATANIA
SENIOR CAPTAIN Allison D’Orlando serves up a point as the Lady Hornets took on the Lynnfield Pioneers in North Reading’s new gymnasium. (John Friberg Photo)
NORTH READING — The North Reading Spikers’ started off the new school year with the first ever victory in the New North Reading High School gym. Both JV and Varsity stepped up to the net to win their respective games: JV 3-0 and Varsity 3-1 against the Saugus Sachems.
Saugus
The North Reading Spikers started off the season with a 3-1 win over Saugus. The game was quick on the offense. Junior Jessica Lezon took the lead for attacks with a total of nine attacks in four matches. Junior Ciera Mastascusa was right behind her with a total of seven successful attacks. Junior Julia Crugnale, senior Montana Robertson and Allison D’Orlando also had at least two attacks each.
Senior Amanda Catania led the team in ace serves. She served four aces out of five and then two out of six. Senior Olivia Krol also had a good serving run with a total of six serves.
Krol set all the hits that led to the victory, many of which were serve received and passed by Catania, Junior Tristan Hoffman and Junior Leah Diamantides. This game also had several crowd pleasing volleys.
JV also had a victory against Saugus 3–0. Nicole Sullivan and Arianna Romeo both attacked to score, while Sullivan also blocked to score. Jenna Forcellese also had great passes throughout the matches. The strong serving of Nicole Shedd, Mckayla Murphy, Abigail D’Orlando, Abigail Paine and Noel Riley lead the JV team in serving.
Lynnfield
After the great win against Saugus, North Reading unfortunately lost 0–3 to their Lynnfield rivals. It was an extremely tough loss to a strong opponent with good saves/digs by Diamantides and Catania. North Reading had three attacks and three blocks by Lezon, two attacks by both D’Orlando and Mastascusa, and one by Krol.
Following the footsteps of the varsity, JV also lost to Lynnfield 0–3. Abigail Paine and Kasey Kavannugh attacked to score, while Katie Lonsdale tipped to score. Shedd and Forcellese made great digs but unfortunately lost.
Somerville
The North Reading varsity came out strong winning the first two games. Somerville fought back winning the third and fourth matches, which put the two teams into a rubber match. North Reading jumped to a quick lead in the fifth game which only goes to 15 points, with hard serves and easily beat Somerville. North Reading defeated the Highlanders, 3-2.
Mastascusa led the offense by successfully attacking eight balls. Right behind her was Crugnale with seven attacks followed by D’Orlando and Lezon with at least five. Krol also made a successful tip to score.
Serving was powerful with Mastascusa serving five serves including two aces and six serves including a signal ace. Catania served seven including two aces. Followed by Robertson, Krol and Diamantides.
Hoffman, Catania and Diamantides all managed great passes throughout all four games, with Krol setting them up for the hitters to have a perfect attacks. D’Orlando, Robertson and Lezon had a total of eight blocks to win the game.
The JV also beat Somerville 2-0. Erika Beherrell, Shedd, Abigail D’Orlando, Riley and Taylor Moore all attacked to score. Sullivan, Shedd, Paine and Moore blocked to score in all three games. Shedd also served five including three aces to win.
Hard loss to Masco
The North Reading Spikers spent last week away facing off against Masconomet Regional High School, Burlington High School and Hamilton–Wenham Regional High School. The week was hard on the Hornets losing to Masconomet 0-3, and Burlington 1-3. However, the Spikers fought hard to win against Hamilton–Wenham 3-2.
The game against Masconomet was a hard loss. The Spikers unfortunately could not keep up with Masconomet’s superb offense and defense. Allison D’Orlando however, was a key player throughout the matches. Throughout the game D’Orlando managed to have five successful attacks out of seven attempts. She also managed two aces during the game and several successful blocks. Another impressive player who put her best into the game was Olivia Krol. Setter Krol worked hard on the court sprinting to every ball, allowing the attackers to do their best and make amazing plays. Olivia also never missed a serve and made many defensive plays. Despite D’Orlando and Krol’s best efforts the Spikers could not pull together a victory.
Burlington was a tough game with the score going back and forth. Match two was the Spikers at their finest with the team winning 25-22 after several tough and hard-won rallies. Two people stood out during this match, Jessica Lezon and Leah Diamantides. Diamantides played strong in the back row. She saved a multitude of balls allowing for the other girls on the team to do their jobs. Also she was a consistent server, managing three aces throughout the four matches. Lezon made great use of Diamantides passing, earning seven attacks out of eight attempts. Lezon also blocked six times, preventing the opposing team from scoring several points. These great plays however were not able to match the playing of the Burlington team.
Hamilton–Wenham was also a hard game, going all five matches before North Reading won. The team played their best winning matches one, three, and five. The games were intense with multiple rallies occurring and all of the matches going point for point. Two players really helped to keep the game together. Ciera Mastascusa was the best hitter of the game, having nine attacks out of eleven attempts throughout the five matches. Mastascusa also made a few great saves throughout the matches to keep the ball alive and performed several aces to help the team gain points when it was needed. The other player was Amanda Catania, who managed to make two successful attacks from the back row. Catania also had three aces and several passes to save the ball and prevent the other team from scoring. Overall, the team pulled out all the stops and managed a victory, giving the Spikers their third win.
