Defending champ Central Catholic headed back to finals

Thu, Nov 06, 2008 TBA @ Central Catholic
Team	1	2	3	Final
North Andover	15	8	16	0
Central Catholic	25	25	25	3

Defending champ Central Catholic headed back to finals

Currently 0.0 with 0 votes.
1
2
3
4
5

Lawrence:
Central Catholic celebrates after defeating North Andover in three straight games in the Div. II North Tournament semifinals at Central Thursday evening.
Photo by Roger Darrigrand/Eagle-Tribune Thursday, November 06, 2008 » Roger Darrigrand, Staff Photographer

Thursday, November, 06 By Conor Clancy
Correspondent

LAWRENCE — Bring on Melrose. Again.

With a complete team effort that showed the strength of its depth, the Central Catholic girls volleyball team (20-0) advanced back to the Division 2 North Finals with a win over North Andover (15-7). Central, the defending North Finals champion, jumped out early and never once trailed as it won in straight games 25-15, 25-8, 25-16.

The Raiders will now face a familiar opponent in Melrose (22-2), a team it beat in last years finals. Saturdays title game will mark the fifth consecutive season that Central and Melrose have squared off in the playoffs.

“We now have a chance to do exactly what we said we wanted to do in defending our title,” said Central coach Gannon Paris. “It is always good to get back to where you want to be and we are there.”

Central started fast getting a couple aces from junior Carolyn Eddy and senior Carla Borrelli (3 aces, 21 digs), as it jumped out to an early 17-6 lead in the first game. North Andover seemed to get a little momentum as it scored five straight points but eventually the consistency of the Central Catholic hitters prevailed, taking the first game.

Eddy started the second game with back to back aces as Central again built a commanding 11-2 lead. Eddy, an Eagle-Tribune all-star last year, finished the game with 20 assists and 16 service points (3 aces).

“Carolyn has just been consistent for us the entire year and was again tonight with a lot of nice plays,” said Paris.

Taking advantage of a few North Andover mistakes, the Raiders did not hold back getting several kills from Maggie Hillman (7 kills) and Katie Zenevitch (8 kills) as well as a variety of players.

“I told the girls before the game that I wanted our depth to be the difference,” said Paris. “We wanted North Andover to know that we could hit in multiple places from a number of hitters. Several of our girls were able to get good looks and that has been our strength this season.”

The final game was perhaps North Andovers best effort of the night, grabbing 16 points before another big Zenevitch kill put Borelli in position to serve out the match.

Central has now gone undefeated at home in its last two seasons.