Melrose sweeps Wilmington to improve to 3-0
Published April 2, 2021
By JENNIFER GENTILE
MELROSE—After a two week break, the Melrose High girls’ volleyball team picked up where they left off and continued to dominate competition in a 3-0 win over Wilmington at home on Monday night, taking sets of 25-8, 25-8 and 25-6 from the Wildcats. Melrose, on hiatus from a two week Watertown COVID shutdown, easily outmatched Wilmington with a wide variety of scorers leading the night in offense.
Junior Abby Hudson had a statement game with 8 kills while sophomore Gia Vlajkovic offered 6. Melrose served impeccably over the night with great contributions from Elena Soukos, Sofia Centrella and Eva Haralabatos, who went on extended service runs that effectively kept the Wildcats out of any set. The night started with a long Haralabatos service run aided by hitting from Gia Vlajkovic that brought Melrose to a 7-0 lead. Libero Autumn Whelan had a beautiful diving dig that set up a hard hitting kill by Abby Hudson, who helped Melrose stretch to a 12-2 lead. A great service run by Sophia Centrella extended Melrose’s lead to 15-3. Wilmington called a time out to break up Centrella’s rhythym but Centrella only returned with a smooth ace that gave Melrose a lead of 20-4. Emily Hudson knocked in a dinger and Elena Soukos finished the job with a kill to end the set 25-8.
Set two was much of the same. Melrose began with a lead of 5-2 thanks to some fine net work by Grace Sanderson, who also collected an ace on the serving line. Gia Vlajkovic also looked strong on the line with a few service points. Offensively, Melrose relied on nice hitting from Sofia Centrella on the outside and Melrose secured another 25-8 set win.
Set three was another master class in serving by Haralabatos and Soukos. Soukos picked up a number of aces and service points, aided with the hitting of Chloe Gentile and Ava Burns. When Sofia Centrella took over at the service line, Melrose relied on two straight kills from Sadie Jaggers. Melrose freshman Grace Gentile closed the game on the service line, helping to set up an Elena Soukos dagger that ended the 3-0 shutout by a score of 24-6.
This week was primed to be a busy one for Melrose, who will travel to Wilmington on Saturday at noon before hosting Burlington in a must-watch league battle on Tuesday. Fans can view at Melrose High’s Youtube page at tinyurl.com/MelroseLive.
