PEABODY — If you wanted evidence that the Bishop Fenwick-St. Mary’s rivalry is alive and well, you didn’t need to look any further than Thursday night’s game between the Crusaders and Spartans volleyball teams. In a hard-fought battle from start to finish, Fenwick earned a 3-1 victory over its Catholic Central League rival. The set scores for Fenwick were 26-24, 27-25, 21-25, 25-17.
“One thing we’ve really been trying to work on lately is having a high-tempo offense, and also being able to sustain runs,” said Fenwick coach Samantha Kelly. “We did some things well and didn’t do some other things we needed to, but we’ll be better in the next game.”
Senior captain Annie Murphy had a big game for Fenwick, while setters Jessica Furtado and Shannon Corcoran also played well in the win.
For St. Mary’s, seniors Ava Benzan and Eva Fainga’a and junior Molly Cummings played well in the victory, among a number of other key contributors.
“I’m really proud of the girls, we haven’t taken a set from Fenwick in a long time,” said St. Mary’s assistant coach Ivanna Nunez, who played on the team before graduating in 2017. “Every set was competitive and we were neck-and-neck with them the whole way.”
The game was a back-and-forth affair from the very beginning. The two sides battled to a 15-15 deadlock in the first set, with the lead changing hands a number of times throughout. St. Mary’s was able to take a small lead and stretch it to two points, but Fenwick continued to battle back. After the Crusaders tied the score at 21-21 and then took the lead, St. Mary’s continued to battle back. Such was the case until the score sat at 24-24. From there, Fenwick was able to squeeze out the final two points necessary to take the first set, 26-24.
The second set was no less exciting. Fenwick jumped ahead early by a score of 8-3, but St. Mary’s never stopped fighting. The Spartans slowly chipped away at the deficit, eventually coming as close as one point. Finally, after a small rally, St. Mary’s tied the score at 17-17. From that point, there were six ties and seven lead changes in the remainder of the set. But with the score tied at 25-25, Fenwick was able to notch the tally that sent it to set point. After a double hit by St. Mary’s, Fenwick took the set 27-25.
St. Mary’s jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third set, but Fenwick responded by putting together a 14-6 run to jumped ahead and force the Spartans to take a timeout. Fenwick pushed its lead to as many as eight points, 19-11, but the Spartans wouldn’t be denied. St. Mary’s responded with a stellar 14-2 run to win the set, capped off by a big kill from Fainga’a.
“I think that comeback in the third set just shows how resilient our team can be,” said St. Mary’s assistant coach Mary Rayno. “From the last time that we played (Fenwick) to now, we’ve seen such a huge improvement in our play.”
But luckily for the Crusaders, the momentum shift wasn’t too great to overcome. Fenwick came out in the fourth set and jumped out to a 7-5 lead early, and the Crusaders were able to stretch that out from there. Despite a small rally from St. Mary’s near the end of the set, Fenwick was able to take the fourth set by a score 25-17 and capture the match.
“I think the biggest thing in that fourth set was serving,” said Kelly. “St. Mary’s has a really good set defense, so we really needed to get those serves in and keep those runs going.”
St. Mary’s is right back in action Friday evening (5) with a match against Matignon.
Fenwick (7-2) takes on Cardinal Spellman at home Saturday evening (5:30).
