Published in the March 16, 2021 edition.

By DAN PAWLOWSKI

WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield High volleyball team cruised to a second consecutive win to start their season, beating Watertown 3-0 on Saturday morning at the Charbonneau Field House. The win completed a season sweep for the Warriors over the Raiders.

Wakefield was led by strong hitting from junior Mia Desruisseaux who had 12 kills and five points from the service line. Senior captain Clara Butler had 15 assists, two kills and four aces. Junior Kelsey Manchester added six kills and five aces. 

Wakefield nearly led wire to wire in a 25-11 set one victory. Desruisseaux was locked in from the start with two kills and an ace contributing to a 6-1 start. After Watertown battled back to tie the set at 8-8, Mia kept a rally alive and Butler blooped one over to take back the lead for good. A Desruisseaux kill and Manchester ace made it 11-8. Manchester later got another ace to make it 15-8 and her third of the set to make it 22-8.

The Warriors fought through a back-and-forth start in set two, taking the lead at 3-2 after a Desruisseaux ace. Junior Maddy Seabury (4 kills, 2 blocks, 3 aces) made her presence felt with two booming spikes to push the Warrior lead to 4-2 and back-to-back Desruisseaux aces made it 6-2. Manchester had three kills in a row from Butler to make it 11-3. Senior captain Hailey Burke’s first of two kills came off a pass from Butler in the middle to make it 13-5. 

A service point from senior captain Lexi Chiros and a Desruisseaux cut shot made it 15-5. A fake set and kill from Butler followed by a Desruisseaux kill and a Seabury block made it 20-7 and Desruisseaux concluded the set in style with a strong hit and later an ace to end it at 25-8.

The Warriors kept rolling in the third as their serving really picked up. Butler started the set off on an 8-0 run including three aces. Desruisseaux added a couple aces, Seabury had another block and ace of her own to make it 13-2. One of the plays of the match came on a diving dig by Manchester to Butler to played a perfect pass to Talia Thomson who did the rest for one of her two kills on the day as Wakefield finished strong with more accurate and powerful hitting from Desruisseaux and Manchester. 

The Warriors will look to keep the momentum going this Saturday at noon when they host Wilmington who is 0-2 after starting their season against a strong Burlington team.