Game Report:
Varsity Volleyball
Woburn vs. Winchester
October 3, 2017
On Tuesday, the Woburn Varsity Volleyball Team (9-1) played their biggest game of the year so far against their undefeated rival Winchester (10-0). And before it even started, you could tell it was a big game. Most of the stands were already filled to cheer on the JV Volleyball team when they beat Winchester 3 sets to 2. Tanner faithful showed up in heavy numbers to support the Volleyball team, definitely not because of the extra credit promised by Head Coach and English teacher Mr. Roy.
In the first set, Woburn got out to a fast start. Behind the crowd, they jumped out to a 12-6 lead before Winchester had to call a timeout. But following the timeout, Winchester brushed the dust off and showed why they are undefeated. Winchester senior right side hitter Carlina McKinley started to bring Winchester back in the game. Whenever the Sachems were able to set up and get it to #8, Woburn almost never had an answer. Her spikes seemed like they were going 60 or 70 mph and were basically unreturnable. Winchester was able to tie the game at 18, and it was looking like they would continue to surge and take the first set. But, after multiple serves and spikes landed out of bounds, Woburn took the lead and eventually won the close first set 25-23.
Between the first and second sets, the Woburn and Winchester fans started to get into it. Chants of “Let’s Go Sachems!” were deafened by chants of “Let’s Go Woburn!”, “We Can’t Hear You!”, and “Sit Down! Shut Up!”. Throughout the entire game, the Woburn fan section was very enthusiastic and affected the way the Tanners played for sure. It would be great if this many fans could attend every game.
To start the second set, both teams looked eager to win, Woburn to take a 2-0 advantage and Winchester to tie things back up. The score was 7-7 before Woburn called a timeout. After that, Winchester, led by McKinley started to find every hole in the Tanners defense. Every spike was landing, and Woburn just couldn’t keep up with Winchester. They were able to trade points, but that was not enough as WInchester took the second set 25-19.
The break between sets had no effect on Winchester as they continued to put up points in the third set. They had a 14-8 lead when the Woburn crowd got on their feet and tried to bring them back into the game. However, after a small Tanner run, Winchester took the momentum back and won the set 25-19.
At this point, it would have been easy for the Tanners to give up and go down without a fight in a potential final set. It would have been easy to take a loss and just say that Winchester was undefeated and that was the reason why they lost. But in the fourth set, Woburn went toe-to-toe with perhaps the best team in the state. The teams were trading points, until junior Luna Colozzo of Winchester joined McKinley in crushing the ball to the floor. Winchester took a 16-12 lead, and again it looked like they were going to run away. But Woburn, as they had done in the previous two sets, didn’t go down without a fight. Woburn even took the lead 22-21, but then the most important point of the match went to the Sachems. It seemed that Winchester had hit a ball out of bounds, but the ref, who hadn’t been great all night, said that the ball grazed a Woburn player and then went out of bounds. Winchester took that point, the set 25-22, and the game 3-1. Woburn should not be discouraged in any way, and if a few plays went a little different, the game could have too. Hopefully, they will get another chance against Winchester soon.
Submitted by: Dylan Woods, Staff Writer
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