PEABODY — Sometimes there’s just not much a team can do, no matter how hard it tries. Such was the case last night with the Peabody girls volleyball team, which played its best defense of the season, only to come up short, losing to Merrimack Valley powerhouse powerhouse North Andover in the first round of the North Division 1 tournament at home, 3-0 (21-25, 19-25, 15-25).
The No. 7 Tanners were at a size disadvantage and had no answers for the No. 10 Scarlet Knights’ 6-foot twin towers in the middle, Sophie Meyers and junior Julia Webster, who dominated at middle hitter.
Nonetheless, Peabody coach Lisa Keene was happy with the effort and knew going into the game that the Tanners would struggle offensively.
“They’re a very good team that plays is probably the strongest volleyball league, so we knew that it never matters what their record is, their league is just the best of the best,” said Keene. “We knew it was going to boil down to having to play great defense, and I think we did that tonight. It’s tough giving up so much height at the net, but I thought we never gave up and played our best defensive game of the year. I have nothing to complain about with the effort.”
The Tanners got off to a spirited start, jumping out to a 4-1 lead in the first set. North Andover gradually played its way back into the set, going on a 20-8 run to take its largest lead of the set at 21-12. Peabody won four of the next five points, the big shots being a cross court kill by Jillian Alimonti, a pretty soft kill by captain Sereno Laro and a cross court winner from the left side of the net from Julissa Dailey.
Peabody cut the deficit to 24-21 on another Dailey winner, but that was as close as the Tanners would come.
“That run at the end, that just said volumes about the defense they played,” said Keene. “Honestly, this was a defensive game, for the girls to get to the balls and make the passes just to try to create an offense was great considering they had great middle blockers.”
North Andover led from start to finish in the second set, then opened up a 19-6 lead in the third set. Peabody gamely fought back and got the deficit down to eight at 24-16 after a pair of diving off-court saves by Martyna Kot and Rachel Coleman staved off match point.
“I’m very proud of the way the back line in particular played tonight,” said Keene. “Everyone who played in the back line was just outstanding, especially Martyna, Tatiana Correia, Joanna Bampi, and Jillian Alimonti also played very well. It’s just tough trying to play balls when the ball’s coming at you from that high angle, so tough to defend.”
Alimonti (12 digs, 2 aces, block) had a team-high six kills, while Coleman led the offense with 15 assists and Correia led the defense with 20 digs. Kot finished with 12 digs, while Laro had five kills and two blocks.
Peabody finished the season at 10-6.
