Lady Raiders Volleyball Finds Success in Reading

The stage was set for the Reading Memorial High School volleyball team to continue its three-game win streak in front of it home fans Friday night, but the Melrose Lady Raiders had other plans. 

Melrose (4-0) defeated Reading (3-1) after three games, 25-22, 25-22, 25-23. Every game was extremely close, but each time Melrose managed to come out on top. 

Melrose High School head coach Scott Celli said he could not have asked for a better showing by his team.

"We played smart volleyball and great defense," Celli said. "We didn't let any balls hit the floor. (Reading) put balls away, but you expect that from good teams. I don't think we could play any better than that."

The Rockets seemed to be their own worst enemy, racking up a staggering amount of service errors.

They had three service errors in game one, one in game two, and five in game three. The unforced errors caused a lot of damage, as Melrose capitalized on Reading's sloppy serves. 

Reading head coach Michelle Hopkinson did not believe her team was out-matched, just that too many unforced errors got in their way. 

"Unforced errors were the only difference," Hopkinson said. "There was only a three-point difference in the games, and we had five or six missed serves. That is unacceptable, we can't win like that. You just can't give that up. Good news on that is that we know what we need to work on."

Melrose's Jill Slabachesk led the pack with 13 kills, followed by Athena Ziavras with eight kills of her own. Brooke Bell was also a force for the Raiders with eight assists. 

"(Bell) is only a sophomore she plays like she's a senior in college sometimes," said Celli. "She's just so smart out there, and when you have that she just runs the whole show for us." 

Reading came out strong in game one and took a quick lead. Melrose fought their way back, however, and tied the score at 19-19. 

With momentum on the Raiders' side, they gained the advantage after taking seven straight points. Reading couldn't recover from the furious comeback, and dropped game one, 22-25. 

Although both teams came out hungry in game two, it resulted in another back-and-forth battle with Melrose coming out on top. They took game two the same way they did game one, 22-25. 

Game three was the most nail-biting of them all. It was all tied-up eight times throughout the game, including at a score of 23-23.

Reading was unable to pull out the win to keep the match alive, however, and Melrose gained two straight points to seal the victory on the road. 

Hopkinson is confident her squad will bounce back from the loss.

"We are a young team and half our starters are sophomores. There is a learning curve involved, and you have to learn confidence and emotional control when you are three or four points down," Hopkinson said. 

Next up, the Rockets will host powerhouse Andover Monday at 3:45 p.m. The Raiders will prepare to take on Winchester away on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.