Volleyball team dominates Attleboro and Sharon; gets flattened by North Attleboro

Coming off a tough loss to nonleague Quincy the week before, the CHS varsity volleyball team responded in a big way last week with back-to-back shutout victories — at Attleboro on Monday and home versus Sharon on Wednesday; unfortunately, the Bulldogs ran into a buzzsaw Friday night, losing on the road to undefeated North Attleboro in straight sets as they fell to 2-3 against teams in the Hockomock’s Kelly-Rex Division.

Including nonleague contests, the Bulldogs are now just 2-5 against teams outside of their own division, yet they are a perfect 7-0 in the Davenport Division and a respectable 9-5 overall with three matches remaining in the regular season.

The team also has to feel good about its two wins last week — especially Wednesday’s lopsided win over the Eagles (25-14, 25-17, 25-15), which doubled as a fundraiser in honor of former Lexington High School volleyball player Molly Eisenberg, who lost her battle with ovarian cancer last October at the age of 19.

The second annual event, dubbed “Volley for Molly,” raised over $700 for ovarian cancer awareness with the help of many parents. And just like last year’s fundraiser, the Bulldogs dazzled on the court, this time powered by a trio of juniors — Alison McHugh (7 kills), Hayley Reissfelder (3 kills, 1 block), and Olivia Murphy — and the leadership of sophomore libero Mellyn Costello, who finished with 19 digs.

CHS head coach Pat Cawley said the defense “played great” behind Costello, just as it had against Attleboro earlier in the week, when the Bulldogs stormed out of the gate to take the first set 25-8 and never looked back.

Canton went on to take the second set 25-20 and the third set 27-21 as Cawley turned the match over to her reserves. Cawley said several players contributed to the win, including Kathryn Ruhl (5 kills), Anjali Schutt (4 kills), and Sarah Bartlett (4 kills).

Bolstered by the two easy victories, the girls traveled to North Attleboro on Friday to face the 16-0 Red Rocketeers, and while they knew they would have their hands full, they hoped to at least play competitive volleyball. Instead, they were thoroughly overmatched, falling in three sets by a combined 34 points.

The match proved sweet revenge for an NA program that has consistently played well, yet has never won a league championship.

“We knew they’d be going after us as we have been the ones to stop them in the past,” said Cawley, whose teams have won the past three Hockomock titles. “Our inexperience showed from the start — they came after us offensively and we froze in our tracks.”

Despite struggling mightily in the first two sets, Canton did manage to settle down in set three, where they played NA even to 20 before fading down the stretch.

McHugh finished with five kills and one ace, Julia Murphy had four kills and two blocks, and setter Shannon Brady had 10 assists.

“We had our chance to win [in set three] but could not push through,” Cawley said. “Hopefully we’ll get another chance at them and we’ll play with more poise and confidence.”

The Bulldogs had two matches this week — home versus Foxboro and away versus Franklin — followed by the first-ever “Hockomock Classic” on Saturday beginning at 5 p.m. The team then closes out the regular season on Monday, November 1, at nonleague Melrose.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Oct 28 2010. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.