Volleyball: Marauders' Fall to Dracut in Home Tourney Opener

Belmont High School Girls' Volleyball Head Coach Jen Couture described the dilemma facing her team as they met Dracut High School Saturday on the court in Belmont as playing against a mirror image of themselves. 

"Dracut was a very similar team to us; they had [a] great defense and they got their hits over so it was kinda like playing ourselves. So in a strange way, we lost to ourselves just by the amount of unforced errors we made," said Couture.

A case of nerves, playoff inexperience and facing plays first time resulted in Belmont seeing their season end on their home court losing to Dracut, 3-1, (23-25, 13-25, 25-19, 14-25) on Saturday, Nov. 2.

"I'm not really sure why they were so nervous. Yesterday they were extremely excited about the game and seemed really focused so I'm not sure what happened today. I was tough to watch," said Couture, who said the team hadn't seen the deep roll shots – in between the hard and short shots most team use – the Middies employed throughout the game.

"It was a ball they were not use to defending and it just threw some people off and not as many [players] adjusted as well as we usually do," said Couture.

The Marauders (10-11) nerves showed from the start of the game falling behind 1-7 on six unforced errors. The team, through a pair of kills by junior Alex Davis and strong back line play led by junior libero Sam Nelson, tied the score at 13-13 only to see the Middies, guided by senior co-captain Allison Ramirez, reel off five points and hold a 20-24 lead late in the set. Belmont's strong net play and mistakes by Dracut brought the Marauders to one point behind, 23-24, but Dracut took the final point after a long rally in which their shots were closer to the net.

While it appeared Belmont would change the tenor of the game by going out to a 4-1 lead in the second set, Dracut's senior co-captain Kayleigh Bishop served the Middies to 10 consecutive points to lead 4-11 and increased the advantage by 10 points for most of the game to win by 12, 13-25. 

Finally in the third set Belmont began playing with the confidence that Couture said allowed them to stay in games throughout the season. And it was the Marauders strength at the net that saw them race out to a 8-4 lead with juniors Rosy Fitzgerald and Carola Rohner tipping in points in close and junior Yvette Kleinbock winning a point by stuffing a Dracut kill attempt.

Despite the return of tentative play – allowing shots to drop inside the line, running into teammates – allowed Dracut to creep back for a tie, 15-15, Rohner's hard service game resulted in Belmont taking five straight points while senior captain Annie Hang timely hitting allowed the Marauders to run out the game, 25-19.

Belmont brought the momentum from the third set to the fourth as sophomore sub Katelyn Messer blocked a kill attempt and Kleinbock pushed a shot in between two Dracut defenders.

But after a Davis winning shot put Belmont within one of a tie, 9-10, Dracut went on an 8-3 run to take a convincing 12-18. And while the forward "wall" created by Fitzgerald and Rohner caused the Middies problems, it wasn't enough to change the course of the match as Dracut stretched out their advantage to win, 14-25. 

Couture said making the playoffs and playing in the tournament will benefit the team next season which returns eight varsity players and five of the six starters in the lineup Saturday. 

"I'm excited that so many [players] are coming back next year. If we play consistent, it should be another great year," she said.