Wellesley denies volleyball, after Mustangs make push

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
Article by: Norwood Record - Mike Stoller

The state tourney hopes for the Norwood volleyball team ended last week, but that won’t take away the effort the Mustangs made in their push to get there, especially against Wellesley last week in a must-win game against one of the kingpins in the Bay State Conference. It took the visiting Raiders five games to defeat the ‘Stangs, who at one point led two games to one, at the Savage Center. Even if Norwood had won the match, it still would have had to beat Walpole next Wednesday to qualify for the postseason.

"I am very proud of the way the girls played competing with one of the top teams in the league," Norwood head mentor Tim Linehan said, after the Raiders defeated the Mustangs, 3-2.

To even get the chance for the meaningful game against Wellesley, Norwood had to beat BSC Carey Division foe Needham earlier in the week, and the host Mustangs came through with solid 3-1 victory over the Rockets, reaching a milestone of sorts.

"It was the first win over a Carey Division team [this season], and the first time this senior class has ever beaten a Carey team," Linehan said.

"We had a balanced attack led by Steph Perry, Tahira Gibson, and Lauren Duggan, [and] Carly Juckett played excellent in the back row," the coach added.

The Blue and Gold followed that win with a 3-0 win over visiting non-conference foe Arlington. Perry and Nikki Cignarella struck for 16 and 10 kills, respectively. Migena served a whopping 10 aces, and Carly Blais posted a career-high 28 assists.