MARBLEHEAD — When conference rivals clash against one another in the state tournament, previous results and regular season records are thrown out the window.
That’s the mentality the No. 8 Marblehead volleyball team used to defeat No. 9 Beverly in Thursday evening’s Division 1 North first round match at Marblehead Fieldhouse in a battle between Northeastern Conference foes.
The Magicians won the match 3-1, with set scores of 25-22, 17-25, 25-13 and 25-20.
“We knew the playoffs are a whole different ballgame,” Magicians coach Killeen Miller said. “Beverly has only improved and gotten better since we played them in our first game of the season.”
Set one was back and forth from the start. The first 18 points were split evenly, 9-9, before Marblehead created breathing room with a three-point lead at 12-9. Beverly stayed close but after handful of lead changes, Marblehead took the set 25-22.
Both coaches agreed that the intensity in the first set provided a good indication for how the match would play out the rest of the way.
“Our kids came out flat and Beverly came out ready to explode,” Miller said. “I think they hands-down outplayed us in that first set. I think that was a good awakening for our team. We have to play to the highest caliber here. It’s playoff volleyball and everyone’s playing their heart out.”
“We knew what kind of match it was going to be,” Beverly coach Pamela Padovani said. “We’ve seen Marblehead before. We’re two pretty evenly-matched teams.”
Beverly stormed out to an 8-4 lead in set two, forcing the Magicians to burn a timeout. The Panthers pulled away late to win the set 25-17.
“We didn’t make any adjustments, we just played to the best of our potential in the second set,” Padovani said. “We should be proud of how we played in that second set because we all played as one, played the best we could and got the win. I was hoping we could keep that level up for the rest of the match.”
The Magicians rolled to a 25-13 win in set three to retake the momentum.
“We started playing in streaks,” Miller said. “We took advantage of our momentum and continued to score points when the ball was on our side. Now we just have to work on changing that momentum when it’s going the opposite way.”
Needing a win in the fourth set to keep their season alive, the Panthers had their backs against the wall. Beverly battled strong but a late Panthers rally fell short and the Magicians took the set, 25-22, to seal the win.
“We never say ‘die’ and I’m really proud of that,” Padovani said. “It stinks to lose. The agony of defeat, we all know about it. But those are the things we have to hold on to. We never gave up and we fought back.”
For Beverly, Bri Snow had a strong performance with 34 balls up on serve receive, 21 digs, four aces and one kill. Sydney Wiley logged 36 set assists, 14 digs and three aces. Maddy Cassidy led the team in kills with 11, had five aces on serve, and received 18 balls. Katie Noonan added 10 digs, nine kills and three aces while Delaney Sprague totalled five kills and Kate Mulligan tallied six kills.
“I thought Bri played lights out,” Padovani added. “She’s played like that all season and kept us in a lot of games. Katie played really well, she hit the ball great, and I thought Sydney did a really great job setting.”
For the Magicians, Mandy Dumais tallied 33 digs, while Lizzie Myers added 10 kills and four blocks and Isabel Castineyra contributed with 11 digs.
The Magicians now gear up for Saturday’s quarterfinal match at No. 1 Methuen.
