Lynnfield 11-15

NOVEMBER 15, 2018
WEEKLYNEWS.NET - 978-532-5880 9
Sports
DIFFERENT DIVISION, SAME RESULT
PHOTO | ANNE MARIE TOBIN
The Division 2 North champion Lynnfield High School volleyball team. The Pioneers defeated Burlington to win the title, only a year after they’d moved up from
Division 3, where they had won seven straight sectional titles.
Volleyball girls now queens of Division 2 North
By Anne Marie Tobin
TEWKSBURY — They’re back.
A year after the Lynnfield volleyball team’s string
of seven straight Division 3 North championship titles
was snapped, the Pioneers are hoisting another sectional
championship trophy, this one in Division 2.
Saturday at Tewksbury High, the No. 2 Pioneers
defeated No. 12 Burlington, 3-0, to advance to the
Tuesday’s state semifinals against Groton-Dunstable at
Hudson High (7:30).
But don’t let the final score fool you as the match was
a nail-biter from start to finish.
Both teams overcame deficits, made long runs, lost
good-sized leads and, at times, looked like their nerves
were getting the best of them.
But in the end, Lynnfield came up with the shots
when it counted the most to earn the right to hoist a sectional
trophy for the eighth time in the last nine years.
Burlington libero Lindsay Baxter opened the match
with an ace, then the teams traded hitting errors to make
it a 2-2 game.
With Mac Schena on serve, the Pioneers ran off the
next six points to take an 8-2 lead. Lynnfield took its
Victory against Melrose was hard work
By Mike Alongi
STONEHAM — The Lynnfield volleyball
team continued its string of
solid play Thursday night, as the No. 2
Pioneers defeated No. 11 Melrose, 3-0,
in the Division 2 North semifinals at
Stoneham High. The Pioneers, who took
the match by set scores of 25-22, 25-21,
25-13, had to work for everything in this
one.
“That was a really good team we
played, and we came together at the end
to get the win,” said Lynnfield coach
Brent Ashley. “The biggest thing about
us is making sure we know what to do
when the ball comes our way, and all our
work in practice has really been paying
off.”
The Pioneers were led by the strong
play of Sam Lebruska, Melissa Morelli,
largest lead of the set, 16-9, on a cross-court kill by
Melissa Morelli. But Burlington went on an 8-0 run to
take a 17-16 lead, prompting a Pioneer timeout.
It was back-and-forth from that point on with neither
team able to gain momentum.
Lynnfield had set point, 24-22 after a Kayla Mortellite
front row winner (from Sophia Wilkinson), but the Red
Devils ran off three straight points to earn their first set
point, 25-24.
A Burlington service error opened the door for the
Pioneers, who closed out the set with an ace by Sam
Lebruska and a double hit by Burlington to take a
one-set lead.
Burlington raced out to a 7-1 lead in the second set,
but Lynnfield rallied with a 13-7 run to tie things up,
14-14. Burlington answered and regained the lead, 20-
17, after three Pioneer hitting errors. Melissa Morelli
stopped the bleeding with a winner to make it 20-18,
then, with Sofia Ciriello serving, Lynnfield ran off the
next seven points to take the set, 25-20.
Morelli got things started, ripping back-to-back winners
down the line to close the gap to 20-19. After a
Burlington miss and an ace by Ciriello, Lynnfield took
Mackenzie Schena and Sam DeGeorge
throughout the match.
Morelli had team-highs in both kills
(14) and assists (16).
“It was her night as a setter, that’s for
sure, especially in that third set when she
really got going” said Ashley. “
DeGeorge, the only senior on the team,
had a monster game with nine blocks
and seven kills, while Lebruska finished
with seven kills, and “had a great serving
game,” added Ashley.
Sofia Ciriello (12 assists), Sophia
Wilkinson (12 assists) and Ashley
Pagliuca (10 digs) also contributed to
the victory, the Pioneers’ fourth straight.
The first set was a back-and-forth
affair, with Lynnfield getting out to an
early 11-6 lead before Melrose came
back to tie it at 18-18. But the Pioneers
were just too consistent out there, and
after a big block by DeGeorge Lynnfield
took the opening set.
The second set was much of the same
to begin with, as the two teams were
tied at 2-2, 4-4, 5-5 and 6-6. But after
that Lynnfield took control, extending
its lead to 20-14 eventually. Although
Melrose did battle back to make it 24-
21, a kill by Lebruska ended the set in
Lynnfield’s favor.
The third set was close at the beginning,
but eventually the Pioneers got into
a rhythm and ended the set on an 11-2
run to win the match.
“They played great defense tonight,
the key being to stop them from long
rallies to contain the pace of the game,”
said Ashley. Scott (Celli) is a brilliant
coach who throws a lot of things at you,
so tonight we had to be the IQ team and
play smart volleyball, and we did. The
its first lead of the set, 21-20. Morelli closed out the
set with a monster kill to the back line to cap an 8-0
Lynnfield run and clinch the second set, 25-20.
“I relied on my old baseball mentality knowing
that the third time hitters come through the hitting
order, they are going to be able to adjust to pitching,”
Lynnfield coach Brent Ashley said. “By the same token,
Burlington was adjusting to our serving. They knew
our three and six servers were floaters and Sophia and
Melissa were going to get into their faces with hard,
driving serves, so we needed to shake up the rotation.”
Ashley’s hunch paid off immediately as, leading 1-0
on a Schena winner, the Pioneers ran off the next seven
points on Schena’s serve to take their largest lead of the
day, 8-0.
Lynnfield still led 24-20, but the scrappy Red Devils
fought back and won the next four points to get back in
the game, tied at 24-24.
A big double block by Morelli and Mortellite gave
Lynnfield its fifth match point, 25-24. The teams traded
the next two points, both on serving errors. Fittingly
the Pioneers won the decisive point on Morelli’s serve
when a Burlington return went wide.
girls are not ready to be done.”
The match capped a busy day for
Pioneer athletics. Earlier, the boys
soccer team played its way into its first
North Division 3 sectional championship
game since 2011 with a 2-0 win
over Pentucket at Austin Prep. Down the
road at Reading High in the semis of the
North Division 2 tournament, the girls
field hockey team was giving nine-time
defending state champion Watertown
all it could handle before going down in
double overtime, 2-1.
“Our fans were fantastic tonight and
they really came out and supported us,”
said Ashley. “I was telling the kids all
day long that they needed to come out
and support us after the boys soccer and
field hockey games, and they did. We
definitely fed off their energy.”