Westwood Volleyball Roundup: Sept. 12-16

Editor's Note: The following information was submitted to Westwood Patch by 's varsity girls volleyball coach Kevin Whitaker.

Westwood High School's girls varsity volleyball team went 2-1 last week, bringing the team's record to 4-2 for the season.

Monday, Sept. 12, at home vs. Weston: Win, 3-0 

"We came out a little flat in our match against Weston," Kevin Whitaker, the team's head coach, said. "We had moments of intensity combined with solid team defense, so I know we're heading in the right direction--we just need to build up our intensity, consistency, and attention to detail in executing plays."

The team beat Weston 3-0, and mixed things up throughout the match, Whitaker said in a team update to Westwood Patch on Friday.

"I was glad to see Monica Norris assert herself on the court in our third and final set," Whitaker said. "Chrissa Salemis was playing solid defense in addition to her play calling on offense, and that will be a critical part of our success as the season unfolds. While our hitting and serve receive was a bit lackluster this match, we did perform well on team defense and we are starting to know our zones of coverage and making better reads on the opponents' hitters."

Wednesday, Sept. 14, away vs. Holliston: Loss, 3-1

"This was tough 3-1 loss on the road," Whitaker said. "At first it appeared we forgot to get off the bus in the first set and we got taken by an efficient Holliston squad by a score of 25-7. This was just one of those starts where nothing went right."

The team, though, shook it off and won the next set 25-21, but a solid Holliston team hung tough and the Wolverines lost 25-21 and 25-23 in the third and fourth sets.  

"We had our chances in the final game to take it to a tie-breaker, but Holliston executed well and we struggled trying to put the ball away," Whitaker said. "The final match point was a real heart breaker with both teams digging the ball and keeping the rally alive. On the plus side, we were digging more balls and our team defense is evolving well. This should be a good match up when we play Holliston later at Westwood."

Friday, Sept. 16, at home vs. Millis: Win, 3-0

The wolverines served 89 percent for the entire match against Millis, an improvement over 76 percent a couple of weeks back, Whitaker said.

"I was happy with our consistent play, because we had been trending downward in the later sets in our matches, but in our final set (on Friday), we served with 95 percent accuracy, missing only one serve out of 20," Whitaker said. "For the match, Jingjuan Li went perfect with sixteen serves without an error and Carol Han continued her serving excellence while making all of her serves."

Whitaker noted Han, Li, Bele Wariboko, Katie Blue, and Emileigh Rau as having multiple kills and contributing solid blocking in the event.

Wariboko, a senior co-captain, also recorded five impressive solo blocks that were all put straight down for points.

"Our libero and defensive specialist Lizzie Trakas continued to build on the strong performances she's been having for us lately and we are now getting to run more offensive plays as our passing game improves," Whitaker said. "There's still lots of room for growth, but this was a balanced floor for us, as we had been struggling in rotations four, five and six, but each one of our six rotations scored at least 12 percent of our points."

He added, "After a sprint to begin our season with six games in the first nine days of school, we get to slow things down with only one match this week. The timing is perfect and I feel this will be a great opportunity for us to work hard at practice and continue improving in a number of areas."

The Wolverines take on Ashland High School at home on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.