HHS Volleyball Wins DVC

Last fall the Hopedale volleyball team went 13-5 on the regular season and rode into the Division 3 Central State Finals before finally losing to Sutton. Coming into the season the Blue Raiders were looking to get back to the championship contest once again, despite losing two key components from last year’s team.
“We knew that we were going to be strong once again this year, but we did lose two key players in setter Zicki Van Zile, who lead the team in assists and middle hitter Jenn Chiarello, the team leader in kills,” Hopedale Coach Andrew Mainini said. “We had five starters returning, but we had some big shoes to fill on our offense. I was looking for two younger players to step up and play for us right away.”
Mainini found those immediate impact players in freshmen Kate Hockenbury and Maddie LaPrade, both middle hitters. What stood out to Mainini was their willingness to step up and play, instead of sitting in the backdrop all timid. In addition to their aggressiveness, the freshmen can also serve on a consistent basis and according to Mainini are super coachable.
Along with the two incoming freshmen senior captain Lauren Kelly, the team’s libero and juniors Jenna Van Zile, Morgan Foley, Liz Swanson and Julianne Poirier opened the 2016 season with 11 straight victories before finally losing to Milford, a division 2 school, but bounced back with an impressive 3-0 win over Nipmuc improving to 12-1. In the Dual Valley Conference the Blue Raiders still are undefeated with two impressive five set wins over Whitinsville-Christian. During both matches the victories came down to two points. Hopedale won 21-19 the grab the first five set win and 15-13 in the second one.
Having a good number of returning starters back, Mainini didn’t have to tinker with the lineup all that much. They only change from last year was moving Van Zile into a setter role, a position that the junior had never played before at all.
“Jenna had never set before, but she took on the responsibility for the good of the team; she’s been a solid player taking over her sister’s role,” Mainini said. “Along with Morgan (Foley) also setting it gives us two setters playing opposite of one another so we always have a setter in the front as well as in the back.”
Despite having only one loss the Hopedale Coach is looking for diversity from his offense. He’s hoping that the squad will become more comfortable with one another on the court allowing them to switch things up at the net. Mainini would also like to see his girls become more consistent with their blocking. If they could master that, they may be able to actually win the Division 3 Central Championship this fall instead of being the runner-up.
“If we’re lucky enough to get out of the districts we are going to see a lot more bigger and skilled attackers on the other side of the net,” the Coach said.
On Friday October 21, the Blue Raiders swept Sutton 3-0 to capture the Dual Valley Conference Championship leaving Hopedale at 15-1 (9-0 in the DVC) on the season. Leading Hopedale to the win that earned them the title were Julianne Poirier with six kills, three aces and eight digs, while Lauren Kelly added 15 digs, four assists and one ace and Jenna Van Zile had nine kills, 10 assists, five aces, two block shots and 10 straight service points in the middle contest to give the Blue Raiders the lead.