Video: Malden Sweeps Somerville

When the Malden and Somerville high school volleyball teams met on Sept. 22, the Golden Tornadoes looked to have the match locked down after going up 2-0. Three games later however, the Highlanders walked off the court with a stunning 3-2 win. 

On Monday night, Malden once again took a 2-0 lead, but this time the lead stuck as the Golden Tornadoes swept Somerville in three games, 25-23, 25-17 and 25-16. 

"Thank God," said Malden coach Dana Maria Brown. "I'm satisfied. We kept it together. This is a team we lost in five games to early in the season. We went up two games to nothing in our last game against them, then they came back and won three in a row so I think we were making sure today that that didn't happen."

In game one, Malden (3-9) led for most of the way. But after taking a commanding 24-14 lead, Somerville began to chip away behind the steady serving of Jacqueline Homsi, who put up eight points to cut Malden's lead to 24-23. But that was as close as the Highlanders (2-10) would get as the Golden Tornadoes were able pick up the winning point. 

"They fought, but they could've had it," said Somerville coach Lauren Poussard. "They just didn't step it up to that level."

Game two saw Malden jump out to an early 11-1 lead before Poussard called a timeout to settle her team down. The break seemed to work as the Highlanders began once again to mount a small comeback, but service errors proved costly and Malden took the game, 25-17. 

"We didn't play at all," said Poussard. "We didn't call, we didn't move, we did nothing. I think it was a mindset. Coming in we obviously weren't focused at all. We're missing a quite a few players... so I think morale wise it wasn't there, but it's not an excuse. They need to be there and we weren't."

The Highlanders started off strong in game three, going up 4-0 before the Golden Tornadoes tied it at 6-6. From there Malden made sure there would be no comeback win for Somerville and won the game, 25-16. 

"Our captains played well," said Brown. "Monika Bashilari, Barbara Finamore, they kind of held us together at the end."

Clauderjine Aspilair and Fillette Lovancy each had a pair of key blocks for Malden in the third game while Kisla Rami picked up three aces. 

Nicole Genard finished with three kills and a block for the Highlanders while Lorenza Etienne had two kills and one block and Jackie Homsi had two kills and two blocks.

Malden will face Dracut today on the road at 4 p.m. while Somerville will travel to take on Matignon on Friday at 4:45 p.m. 

Download the movie