Billerica stumbles against Melrose

Billerica quickly built a 6-0 lead in the fifth set, led by the electrifying play of senior Stehpanie Sardella. And by the time the two teams switched sides. The Indians held a comfortable 8-3 cushion. But the scoreboard only seemed to inspire the Melrose seniors on the court.

“Seeing the scoreboard, we didn’t want this to be our last game,” Soukos said. “They came out with so much power, so much energy and everyone just wanted to work together. We all knew that we weren’t going to stop playing, we wanted to keep going.”

The team managed to rally to tie the match at 14.

And when Senior Abby Hudson (12 kills) drilled match point through the Billerica defense, the comeback was complete.

“There were just some mistakes we made ourselves,” Billerica head coach Brittney Mcginness said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t get out of a hole and spread out. The girls fought hard as they could, and they did what they can. No one is perfect and unfortunately errors happen, and we just couldn’t get back up.”

Billerica came out firing in the first set led by Sardella. The outside hitter rattled off five consecutive kills helping the Indians take the initial set 26-24. Melrose marching back in the second set 26-24, fueled by the heady play of junior captain Chole Gentile (7 kills) and junior setter Dragina Vlajkovic (34 assists).

The Indians managed to regroup in the third set 25-15, putting the Red Raiders on the ropes. But Melrose never quit forcing the tiebreaker at 25-19.

“We matched up really well,” said Mcginness. “(Melrose) have a strong outside hitter, their back row picked up and were very scrappy. Our girls were relentless, they tried to find the holes and continue to work to get in front of those blocks.”