PEABODY — The St. Mary’s Spartans volleyball team completed a season sweep over rival Bishop Fenwick Thursday night, spoiling the Crusaders’ Senior Night with a come-from-behind 3-1 win (23-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-20.)
St. Mary’s Gabriela Lorenzini got the job done on both sides of the court, finishing with a game-high 18 kills along with 14 digs and four aces, while Valeria Morillo finished with a game-high 34 assists with six aces and four digs.
For Fenwick, Emme Lubas finished with a team-high 25 assists.
“It’s nerve-wracking. We’re up in that first set and lost it, so it’s always a big mental battle when it comes to Fenwick,” Spartans’ coach Ivanna Nunez said. “This year we were finally able to win that mental battle.”
Fenwick coach Alexis Bedard said some missed serving opportunities proved costly.
“We practice our serves as much as we could and today we just fell a little short on our confidence tonight,” Bedard said. “The gym as always was extremely loud and I think it kind of frazzled the girls at times. I think they lost their trust a little bit. Those few extra points cost us in the end. Both teams were super competitive.”
Down by as many as 11 midway through the first set, the Crusaders roared back with a 15-5 run to take the set, 25-23. Trailing by eight, 18-10, Fenwick went on a huge 13-1 run with Spooner at the service line to take its first lead. From there, it was back and forth, that is until Murphy put the set away with a monster kill that clipped the back line.
In the second with the teams tied at 19-19, it was the Spartans’ turn to rally, closing out the set with a 6-0 spurt – the final four off the serve of Watson – to level the match at one set each, the key shots being back-to-back kills from Jaylin Frye and a pair of match-clinching aces from Watson.
St. Mary’s never trailed in the third set jumping out to a 7-0 lead on Morillo’s serve, but needed to hold off a late Crusaders’ rally, the key shots being a couple of deafening kills from Watson and a set-clinching winner from Lorenzini. Fittingly, in a match featuring booming serves from both teams, the match ended on an ace from Lorenzini.
Nunez said she was pleased with the Spartans’ service game.
“That’s something I really wanted to focus on going into the playoff season,” she said. “Our serving wasn’t so aggressive, and I figured that would make or break us. We worked very hard at making our serves a little more powerful.”
Bedard highlighted the play of setter Lubas, Charlotte Spooner (11 digs, 6 aces), Kylie Murphy (9 kills, 6 blocks), and Caitlin Boyle
“Emme is always able to get her hands on everything and I thought Charlotte had a very good game at the net. She is super aggressive every time she makes a shot,” Bedard said. “And my two middles, Kylie and Caitlin, are always very strong at the net and played well tonight.”
Nunez liked what she saw from libero Vanessa Magloire (20 digs, 3 assists, 2 aces), Watson and Morillo.
“Vanessa’s been training for a while with a national team and is only a junior, so I have one more year with her,” Nunez said. “The game means a lot to her. She works hard and it shows as it did tonight. Sky and Valeria are both seniors who have been on this team since sixth grade. They also play nationally. I thought Valeria has done a phenomenal job running this offense and Sky has been with us since the seventh grade and is a great defensive player and an aggressive attacker as well,” Nunez said.”
Fenwick (8-11) and St. Mary’s (11-8) each close out their regular seasons with non-league matches on the road Friday with the Crusaders taking on Danvers (5:15 p.m.) and the Spartans taking on Salem (5:30 p.m.).
“We played and beat Salem earlier this year in four sets, so I’m expecting the rematch to be another good one,” Nunez said. “It was a fun match the first time, and hopefully this will be another good battle to end our season.”
“We beat them 3-1 earlier,” Bedard said. “They have a very good offense, but as long as we come into tomorrow with the same energy we had tonight, it should be a good match.”
