Win streak has Bedford girls volleyball thinking big things this season

BEDFORD - It's a gloomy Monday night in the middle of the fall sports season, and the Bedford High School girls volleyball team is trying to close out a win over Goffstown.

After winning 16 of the final 18 points to take the first game 25-9, and then getting out to a 15-8 lead in the second, the Bulldogs have had to dig in against the Grizzlies.

Goffstown rallied to cut Bedford's advantage to 23-22 before the Bulldogs were able to win the second set, and after being down 20-12 in the third game, the Grizzlies have cut the lead to one point, 24-23, again.

In past seasons, that kind of rally might have been doom for Bedford, but this year has been different for the Bulldogs.

"We know how to fight," Bedford senior Breanna Moscillo said. "We all know we’re good as a whole and we know how to work together. When we’re down, like the past couple of seasons, it was hard for us to come back. But now, we have so much confidence in ourselves and we trust each other."

A timeout late in that third game helped the Bulldogs settle down, and on the final point, Jordan Starace set up Kendra Barnard for a kill to give Bedford a 25-23 set win, and a 3-0 victory, the team's seventh in a row.

"Coming out in three was definitely what we needed," Starace said. "That’s big. Coming off no practice because we’ve had games, it’s nice to be able to pull that off."

The Bulldogs (9-1) have been able to pull off a few big wins during their streak, which started with a 3-2 win over Pinkerton on Sept. 14, but the road ahead is tough. That starts Wednesday night with a home match against Portsmouth (6-5), followed by a quick turnaround to play at Nashua South (11-0) on Thursday.

Bedford also had matches against Spaulding (8-2), Salem (9-3), Bishop Guertin (10-1) and Dover (9-3) over the final eight of the regular season.

But with a roster of 10 seniors, many of which have been playing together for a while, the Bulldogs feel good about where they are headed.

"We’re going in thinking we can beat teams and that we have a really good shot," Starace said. "Every game we’ve gone into, I’ve felt confident."

At the start of the season, Bedford coach Anna McGann wondered how the dynamic of having that many upperclassmen might affect the Bulldogs, but so far, it's worked.

"They’ve gone into this with that mentality, that they’re going to give a hundred percent every time they step on the court," the coach said. "Last year, many of them were on varsity, but they were juniors, so they weren’t as comfortable in a game situation. Now that they’ve been through that, they’ve owned it this year, and they’re comfortable and confident on the court."

Moscillo and Starace, and fellow senior captains Maggie McCoole and Jasmine Attar, have led the way, but they've received great support from seniors Barnard, Ramou Taal and Emily Adams.

"This group of seniors is amazing and we work so well together," Moscillo said. "We work really well at bringing each other up. We can rely on each and every one of us. We know, if we’re down, Kendie will get a great swing, or Emily will get a great swing, or Ramou (will). We know our defense will get there when we need it to be."

That defense begins at the net, as all of Bedford's hitters has the height and ability to get up and block shots. Against Goffstown, the Bulldogs finished with 10 of them, with Adams getting four and Moscillo three.

"Sometimes people forget that blocking is a huge part of defense," McGann said. "We have a very tall team and a very old team that has been playing together for a long time. If you’ve got it, use it. We’ve got the height and we’re going to keep jumping at the net to try to get everything."

Bedford is aware that defense has been where a lot of success has come from, and with less than three weeks left in the regular season, the Bulldogs are focused on making that aspect of their game as solid as possible for the stretch run.

"Our defense is really good this season, but sometimes, like (Monday), it’s a little off," Moscillo said. "We’re going to work on defense. We want to work on our hitting, to make sure we’re still strong with our swings, but definitely our defense. If we get that, we can get our attacks in, and our serves have been great."