St. Mary’s Grace Fielding sends the ball over Fenwick’s Molly Camelo. Item Photo by Katie Morrison
By Katie Morrison
LYNN — The St. Mary’s volleyball team has its work cut out for it in a tough Catholic Central League, and Thursday’s match against reigning league champs Bishop Fenwick helped the team see where it stands in the league.
The Crusaders swept the Spartans in three sets, 25-10, 25-14 and 25-11, in their season opener Thursday at St. Mary’s. The Spartans fall to 1-1 on the season.
“I thought this helped us see where we are a lot,” St. Mary’s coach Erin Menard said. “We always open with Fenwick in our first league match, and that’s not an easy task as it is, and I thought we fared well today. The second set was really a good sign for us.”
In the first set, Fenwick jumped out to an 8-1 lead behind five service points from Sam Mancinelli before St. Mary’s Amanda Idusuyi stopped the bleeding with a kill.
The Spartans went on a little run and a nice play from Idusuyi brought the score to 16-7, but St. Mary’s wasn’t able to close the gap. Another run from Fenwick and a short serve from St. Mary’s, and the Crusaders put the set away.
Mancinelli had a nice match, coming up with 13 assists over the three sets.
In the second set, the Spartans staked a 6-1 lead behind some excellent serving from Brianna Lozzi, who had two aces during the run. The set went back and forth with St. Mary’s leading 11-5 at one point, but the Crusaders clawed their way back into the set behind Sydney Topel’s serving. The Crusaders’ late run did in the Spartans, and Fenwick wrapped up the set.
The third set was much like the first, but St. Mary’s Gabby Torres, a freshman who had never played prior to this season, came through with some big hits for the Spartans. Fenwick junior Jennie Meagher closed out the set with a kill.
Fenwick coach Adam DeBaggis was happy with the way his team played in its season opener, especially with the defense of senior Julia Fusco and the back row, as well as Molly Camelo who tallied six kills.
The Fenwick squad is loaded with experienced returnees, as opposed to the Spartans.
“We’re high on seniors and experience, and St. Mary’s is pretty young, and I think we saw that today,” DeBaggis said. “These girls have picked up nicely where we left off last year, and so we’re hoping to just build on that.”
Fenwick was knocked out of the Division 3 North tournament last season by Arlington Catholic in the quarterfinals. DeBaggis says his team is hungry to get back there, and beyond.
“For five of our six seniors, it’s their third year on varsity together,” he said. “These girls, we won the North final when they were freshman on JV, and we haven’t really gotten out of the second round since then, so I think they’re kind of hungry to do something big this year. A few of these girls were on the basketball team (that won the Division 3 state title last year) so I think they like that feeling.”
The situation for St. Mary’s this year is very different. The team has four underclassmen on the court at any given time, so they’re bound to battle growing pains.
However, the Spartans are led by seniors Idusuyi and Ivanna Nunez. Nunez is adjusting to a new position, moving from setter to libero this year. Idusuyi is honing her skills at the net in her fourth year with the team. There’s also sophomore Grace Fielding, who started last season, and Menard says “tremendous steps improving her game.”
The core is there for the St. Mary’s, so it will just take some time and experience for the Spartans to find themselves.
“I think we’ll grow a lot this year,” Menard said. “They’ll take their hits, it’s a very tough league, we can’t deny that. Which is good. We’ll go through our ups and downs but hopefully by the time we get to the Lynn (City volleyball) tournament, we’ll be good.”
