Merrimack girls volleyball beats Hollis Brookline in five games

HOLLIS – It was a regular-season rematch of last year’s Division I championship match, but Wednesday’s meeting between Hollis Brookline and Merrimack might as well have been the real thing.

And this time, the result went the other way.

In 2011, Merrimack took the first game of the championship before HB rallied to win the next three and take the title.

This time around, it was the Cavliers who won the first game, 25-23, and the Tomahawks rallied to take the next two, 25-22 and 25-13. HB forced a fifth game by coming back for a 25-23, but Merrimack took the match, winning 15-8 in the final game.

The ’Hawks also won during the regular season last year, in a match that left the Cavs feeling much worse than this year’s defeat.

“I thought we played great,” HB coach Becky Balfour said. “Last year at this time, they beat us and they beat us pretty handedly. We learned a lot from that.

“This year, a few things go a little differently, and it could have had a different outcome. I know that we’ve got some things that could very easily be addressed. I’m more excited about where we are now, actually, than where we were last year at this time.”

Where the Cavs are right now is at 6-6 in the division, but after losing four of five matches, HB had won two going into the meeting with Merrimack, including a win that might have helped the Cavs turn the corner.

“We’ve really been picking up our game,” Balfour said. “Bedford (on Sept. 28) was a turning point for us. They’re a scrappy team. They’ve got some big girls. That was the turning point, beating them, going to five and prevailing. We took that and went to Pinkerton and beat them in three. It was definitely the best we’ve played all season long. This was really good.”

For Merrimack (11-1), there were some nerves in Wednesday’s first game, perhaps because of last year’s defeat in the final. But the ’Hawks overcame and had just enough to win this time around.

“I think they were nervous, remembering the state championship last year,” Merrimack coach Tammy Lambrou said. “They definitely have the fight. This is a team that can fire themselves up. They were that close and this year they are getting it done.”

Learning from last season’s disappointment has led Merrimack to take a different outlook as the ’Hawks have again piled up the regular-season victories.

“We’re playing one game at a time,” Lambrou said. “Last year, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be that team and it didn’t work out that way. We’ve learned from that and we’re taking it one game at a time. There are a lot of good teams in our division and we’re just seeing what happens.”

After Merrimack took an early lead in the first game, HB won seven of eight points and led by as many as six points. But a run of miscues by the Cavs allowed the ’Hawks to climb back in, as Merrimack used a 4-0 run to make it a one-point game, 19-18, but HB was able to hold on for the win, 25-23.

In the second game, it was HB who took an early lead before Merrimack stormed back, winning eight points in a row, and 11 of 12 to go up 22-11. The Cavs were down 23-13 when they answered with a 9-0 run of their own to make it 23-22 before the ’Hawks won the final two points to tie the match.

Merrimack cruised through Game 3, and again took the lead in Game 4, eventually going up 20-16. HB came back to tie it 22-22, but a serve delay against the Cavs gave the ’Hawks a one-point lead. It would be the final point Merrimack would score, as HB won the final to send it to a fifth game.

“I think it was some focus,” Lambrou said. “We kind of took them a little lightly at that point instead of finishing our game. That’s just it, we’ve got to finish.”

The ’Hawks did, but not with a fight from the Cavs. Merrimack got out to a 5-1 lead, but HB came, going up 6-5. But it was all Merrimack after that, as the ’Hawks ended the match with a 10-2 run.

Jen Coffey led Merrimack with 19 kills and 15 digs, while Allison Latham had 19 digs and 12 kills and Kate Cole had 42 assists.

HB got 13 kills from Kaitlyn Atkinson while Amanda Balsamo had 32 assists, Sav Werne had 10 kills and Kenzie Whalen had eight kills and five aces.