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Page 28 Local Town Pages www.hollistontownnews.com <strong>November</strong> <strong>2016</strong><br />
Sports<br />
<strong>Holliston</strong> Volleyball Players<br />
Ready Younger Set to Take Torch<br />
By Christopher Tremblay<br />
Playing in a rather competitive<br />
volleyball league, <strong>Holliston</strong> is<br />
looking to improve and venture<br />
away from the rest of the middle<br />
of the pack teams in the Tri Valley<br />
League. However, with only<br />
three seniors, the Panthers are<br />
going to have their work cut out<br />
for them.<br />
Leading the way into the<br />
upper half of the TVL will be tricaptains<br />
Julia Dykema, Lindsay<br />
Kester and Maggie McCallum.<br />
Dykema and McCallum will play<br />
the outside hitter positions, while<br />
Kester is the team’s setter.<br />
“I’m looking for the captains<br />
to provide the leadership to the<br />
younger girls and prepare them<br />
for the next few years, pushing<br />
them to get better,” Panther<br />
Coach Brian Lehtinen said. “I<br />
told the seniors that they need<br />
the younger players to gain that<br />
experience if they want to get<br />
into the tournament.”<br />
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In the middle of the court,<br />
Lehtinen has two big players in<br />
Alley Edwards and Emily Howland.<br />
The duo has provided <strong>Holliston</strong><br />
with some raw talent in<br />
the middle, but is still in need of<br />
perfecting their spiking abilities<br />
as well as their blocking and hitting<br />
skills.<br />
Another key player will be libero<br />
Anna Koeva, who is a very<br />
dominant player as only a sophomore.<br />
According to the coach,<br />
the second year varsity player<br />
has kept the Panthers in many<br />
games this year using her defensive<br />
skills.<br />
In order for the Panthers to<br />
climb out of the lower half of<br />
the league and into the upper<br />
half, they are going to have to<br />
continue to grow as a team and<br />
beat the teams that they should<br />
and play the rest tough.<br />
“As a team we’re going to try<br />
to be aggressive on the court<br />
using a lot of back row hitting,”<br />
Lehtinen said. “If we are able to<br />
Ron Saponaro<br />
this on a regular basis, then we<br />
will create some offensive challenges<br />
for the other teams.”<br />
Through the early part of the<br />
season Lehtinen has been pleasantly<br />
surprised in Howland, who<br />
has definitely worked hard during<br />
the off season to bring her<br />
game to the next level.<br />
“She came into tryouts looking<br />
to be our number one middle<br />
hitter,” the Panther coach said.<br />
“She’s very solid and a force to be<br />
reckoned with in the middle, and<br />
as a team we’re looking to add<br />
more plays for her to become<br />
even better.”<br />
As <strong>Holliston</strong> heads into the<br />
second half of the season, the<br />
Panthers find themselves with a<br />
very deep hole that’s going to be<br />
very tough to climb out of.<br />
“With only one win so far<br />
we basically have to win out, it’s<br />
going to be extremely tough,”<br />
Lehtinen said. “The girls are ok<br />
with the fact that they may not<br />
make the tournament this year.<br />
Panther Coach Brian Lehtinen is looking for his best and most senior<br />
volleyball players to help bring younger, more inexperienced players<br />
up to tourney level.<br />
They play the sport for the love<br />
of it and are looking to work for<br />
the future.”<br />
The three Panther captains all<br />
concurred with their coach, and<br />
despite not winning on a regular<br />
basis, they all noted that they are<br />
working hard to make progress,<br />
not only for this year but also for<br />
the future of the program.<br />
The rest of the team includes<br />
Olivia Nguyen, Kylie Warren,<br />
Lara Cunningham, Madison<br />
Iarussi, Jessica Anwar, Caroline<br />
Tornifoglio and Ashley Rivas.<br />
With October being Breast<br />
Cancer Awareness month <strong>Holliston</strong><br />
held its annual Play Pink<br />
game against Bellingham. The<br />
team was able to raise $1,200 for<br />
the Dana Farber Institute with<br />
still its <strong>Holliston</strong> Walk to come.<br />
<strong>Holliston</strong> defeated its Tri-Valley<br />
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rival 3-1 in the contest; 25-20,<br />
25-23, 19-25 and 25-22.<br />
Holding a 2-0 lead in the<br />
possible five set contest, Coach<br />
Lehtinen decided to not only get<br />
some of his subs into the game<br />
for experience but also allowed<br />
them to be part of the Play Pink<br />
matchup with Bellingham. In<br />
the fourth and would be final<br />
set, Koeva took over serve with<br />
the contest knotted at 22 and<br />
proceeded to close out the Blackhawks<br />
with three straight service<br />
points, including an ace for the<br />
Panther’s 24th point.<br />
Howland lead the way in the<br />
Play Pink victory with seven kills,<br />
two blocked shots and three aces<br />
playing the net; Kester had 11 assists<br />
while Dykema added three<br />
kills and five aces.<br />
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Framingham, MA 01702<br />
Tel: 508-872-2266<br />
Fax: 508-872-2011<br />
Email: ronstire@rcn.com<br />
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