PEABODY – The Peabody High School Tanners have been dominant in 2023, winning 10 out of 11 games so far this season. Monday night looked much the same for the Tanners, as they earned a 3-0 sweep (25-11, 25-14, 25-18) over North Reading at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School.
Captains Kayla Landry (5 kills, 2 blocks) and Abby Bettencourt (24 assists, 5 aces) led the way for Peabody, with Lizzy Bettencourt chipping in with 14 blocks herself.
After the game, head coach Lisa Keene had nothing but praise for her captains, but noted that they both have somewhat different roles as leaders.
“Abby leads on the court…. She’s so intelligent that she’ll let kids know what’s happening before it even happens,” Keene said. “She really runs the show out there… Everything goes through her.”
As for Landry, her attitude is what gives her a voice on this team.
“She’s just such a positive, energetic person who makes sure that everybody’s feeling good, that everybody feels heard,” Keene said.
It’s Landry and Bettencourt who have created a team chemistry that Keene believes is one of their biggest strengths despite all their abilities on the court.
“It is such an amazing team, there’s just so many personalities … We have so many laughs together… If you don’t have those moments of levity it makes for a very long season,” Keene said.
The team’s chemistry both on and off the court has Keene excited about upcoming games, and setting major goals for her team’s long-term success.
“I would like to see us go further in states than we have the last 10 years,” Keene said.
She added that this side is used to first-round exits in the state tournament, but believes her team is headed in the right direction, as they look to flip the script and make their names known statewide.
Keene mentioned that in order to find tournament success, her team’s experience in big games is of the utmost importance. She added that in past seasons, the Tanners had “a lack of experience being in the tournament,” which ultimately led to their demise.
For this reason, Keene has a few dates circled on her calendar as key games for her players to understand how to perform when the lights are the brightest.
“We only have two or three girls who have experienced (the state tournament). Our last game of the season is against North Andover, they’re a great team, so hopefully that game will prepare us,” Keene said. “We have a couple of big games coming up next week with Danvers and Masconomet. On Wednesday we play at Saugus. Those are our rivals so we have a lot of work to do this week.”
According to Keene, part of that work includes starting their games with the right energy, as their failure to do so this season nearly lost them winnable games. Keene spoke on their previous game against Danvers, which forced Peabody to come from behind in an improbable victory when Danvers took a 2-0 set lead.
“I don’t want it to get to that point, we should be able to play the best we can right from the get-go. We need to be better prepared for those games,” Keene said.
Fortunately for the Tanners, Keene saw an opportunity for her team to work on a variety of skills in a live-game setting in Monday night’s matchup, which they took in stride. Keene said it was “good for us” to have a matchup in which they controlled from the start, allowing them to pinpoint and fix their errors on serving, blocking, covering, and more.
With their recent success and what has been “steady improvement throughout every single game,” and “hard work in practice” according to Keene, her hopes are continuing to climb when it comes to state success.
The Tanners next game is on Wednesday where they will travel to Saugus to look for their 11th win.
