Austin Prep. Volleyball Loses on the Road

The Austin Preparatory School volleyball team will have to wait another match to pick up its first win of the season, as the Cougars dropped a 3-0 decision to host Tewksbury Monday night to start the season, 0-3. 

The match was extremely close, with the Cougars losing by only five points in game one (25-20) and by a heart-breaking two points in game two (26-24). Game three is when things started to unravel for Austin Prep., and the Redwomen (3-1)  walked away with the game and the victory, 25-11.

For Austin Prep. head coach Lou Polan, game three came down to one thing, focus.

"It's all mental," Polan said. "We need to work on playing the whole 25 points because we can always come back." 

Tewksbury head coach Jim Ray contributes the win to the skillful play of his setters and outside hitters.

"We had our outside hitters hitting really well," said Ray. "That was our meat and potatoes of our offense today. Our passing could be a little tighter in terms of getting the balls to our (middle hitters), but the setters did a fine job of tracking balls down."

Tewksbury's Allie Luppi and Alina Rosmarinofski  both played well for the Redwomen, with Luppi racking up eight kills and Rosmarinofski finishing with six. 

The Cougars got off to a slow start in game one. The score was lopsided in the Redwomen's favor for most of the game, but Austin Prep. made a furious comeback, managing to come within just three points of Tewksbury late in the game. Despite their efforts, it was too little too late, and the Redwomen took game one 25-20. 

Game two exhibited levelheaded and exceptional volleyball from both teams. The score was tied up eight times throughout the set, including at 24-24. Tewksbury took the next point to go up by one, and then capitalized once again with the game on the line. They came out on top 26-24 after a hard-fought battle. 

Austin Prep.'s setter Maura Greene had a strong performance in game two. Greene set her hitters up in prefect position to make kills on multiple occasions, and barely let the ball hit the ground when it came her way. 

Game three was less intense than game two, and Tewksbury was able to put the match away fairly easily. 

Tewksbury will try for their second straight win on Wednesday when they take on Methuen at home at 5:00 p.m. Austin Prep. will take on Archbishop Williams at home Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and will look to secure its first win of the season.