After press time:
Melrose defeats Wakefield 3-0 (Sept. 13)
Melrose falls to Winchester 3-1 (Sept. 11)
Published September 13, 2024
By JENNIFER GENTILE
Unbeaten squad takes down Frontier & ML bests
THE REIGNING league champ MHS volleyball team is off a quick 3-0 start to the season. Pictured hitting is Emme Boyer. (file photo)
MELROSE—After one week of play, the Melrose High girls’ volleyball team sent a message to their Middlesex League and state rivals:
Yup, it’s going to be one of those seasons again.
It’s been an impressive start as Melrose has run out to a perfect 3-0 start against some tough competition including Belmont, Reading and state juggernaut Frontier in just one week of play.
They enter this weekend posed with challenges from ML Freedom rivals Wakefield and Burlington. They will travel to Wakefield this Friday evening for a must-see match up against a team who has given Melrose a run for their money in recent seasons.
Getting to the 3-0 start required Herculean strength on Wednesday, Sept. 4 when they hosted Belmont, a team that beat Melrose in 2023. Melrose was not so surprisingly pushed to five sets and prevailed 25-23, 26-24, 10-25, 19-25, 15-5.
It was a great game for senior outside hitter Caroline Higonenq, who led Melrose with 14 kills and 13 digs. She was aided by offense from Sabine Wenzel (10 kills) and hitters Emme Boyer (6 kills) and Sofia Papatsoris (7 kills).
Emerging victorious in long five sets, Melrose then took the trek out of Frontier on Saturday where they swept the Red Hawks 25-23, 25-17 and 25-11.
Melrose found themselves down 23-20 in the first set but rallied for a win, which set to the down for the rest of the matches. Much of that was due to the terrific hitting of junior Sabine Wenzel who had 16 kills while setter Leah Fowke was great blocking tandem with Wenzel. Fowke had 26 assists in the game and, so far this season, has tallied a pretty massive 85 assists to the young season. Serving was also strong from Maggie Turner, Alex Homan, Caroline Higonenq and Gigi Albuja who had 16 service points.
And it was serving that was the calling card for Melrose when they swept the Reading Rockets on the road on Monday in sets of 25-12, 25-17, and 25-22. Albuja wowed with 19 services points, several aces and a flawless 25-25 attempts on the line, while also tallying 11 digs. Wenzel once again led Melrose in hitting with 12 kills. Maggie Turner was sharp with 15 digs and 14 serve receipts.
Melrose hopes to keep their winning streak going when they take on the upstart Wakefield Warriors this evening at 6:30 at the Wakefield High Field House.
