DANVERS — The Peabody volleyball team didn’t close out the season the way it had hoped, falling 3-0 on the road at Danvers Tuesday. Peabody lost by set scores of 11-25, 21-25 and 17-25.
“I think we showed up a little flat,” Peabody coach Lisa Keene said. “The energy just wasn’t there like it had been in some of our earlier games against teams like Masconomet and Beverly. There were some visible nerves, I don’t know whether that was because it was the end of the season or vacation week. We had some good moments too, just too many unforced errors.”
Krissy Cardello still had a solid day at the service line with seven service points and four aces. Sarah Broughton had four kills, while Abby Bettencourt had eight assists and a pair of blocks.
For Danvers, Tuesday night’s Northeastern Conference clash was the second of a double header. The Falcons had beaten Swampscott 3-0 earlier in the morning and looked right on top of their game from the jump against the Tanners.
Danvers jumped out to an early 6-0 lead in the first set and didn’t give an inch on the defensive end. A timeout midway through the set didn’t help the Tanners settle down, and they quickly fell behind by as much as 20-6 before falling into a 1-0 hole.
Peabody started to look like itself again in the second set, grabbing an early 2-0 lead. But Danvers didn’t stay far behind, grabbing a slim 7-6 lead itself soon after.
That’s when Peabody had one of its best stretches of the night. A pair of aces from Cardello and another ace by Lauryn Mendonca helped put the Tanners ahead 15-9 before a Danvers timeout.
Unfortunately for Peabody, the timeout was what Danvers needed and the Falcons went on a 9-3 run to tie things up at 18-18.
Another ace from Cardello gave Peabody a late 21-20 lead, but Danvers responded with five straight points to go up 2-0.
The third set continued where the second left off, with five ties and a pair of lead changes in the early going, leading to a 9-9 tie. Danvers started to pull away from there and never led by less than five on its way to another win.
For the Tanners, the season ends at 9-4 with eight seniors — Maggie Bena, Maggie Brennan, Maria Chouinard, Destinee Callisto, Sophia Hollingshed, Thelma Hollingshed (scorekeeper), Lily Ryan and Sam Silva — graduating.
But with plenty of talented young players, Peabody already has its sights set on the fall.
“With everything that went on, I’m so happy we got to have a season and I know every coach feels that way,” Keene said. “After losing (Tuesday), we wish we still had something to look to like a tournament. But we were already talking on the bus about how next year is coming soon. We’re ready.”
