Volleyball Remains Undefeated Following 3-1 Win Over Holbrook

Photography by David Creed

The Nantucket volleyball team improved their record to 9-0 this season after beating the Holbrook Bulldogs 3-1 Saturday afternoon.

The sets were as followed:

25-21 Nantucket

25-22 Nantucket

25-22 Holbrook

25-21 Nantucket

"That was a good, gutsy win," Whaler head coach Andrew Viselli said. "They had to grind it out and they absolutely did. There are things we had to work on. We had a brand new lineup out there today and it was super fun to watch."

The Whalers jumped out to a fast 6-0 lead in set one before the Bulldogs answered right back with six points of their own to tie it, but the Whalers were ultimately able to win that first set narrowly.
Nantucket looked flat to begin the second set, down 11-6 early. But they began to slowly peck away at that deficit and eventually tied it 17-17 before a timeout.
The Whalers went onto score five straight points to take a 22-17 lead. But Holbrook fought back and scored five of the next six points to make it 23-22 Nantucket. The Whalers barely held them off, winning the second set 25-22.
The Whalers fell into a quick 10-3 hole to begin the third set and that score quickly became a 16-8 deficit.
The Whalers won the next three points, and had a very gutsy point win to make it 16-12. Each time Nantucket would cut the Bulldogs lead to three or four, Holbrook would fight back.
Viselli called a timeout with his team down 21-15.
After a quick chat with Viselli, the Whalers took a 22-21 lead out of the timeout with a strong string of play. Holbrook was able to calm down and won three of the final four points however to take the set and extend the match to a fourth set.
Holbrook scored the first two points of set four, then senior captain Kalina Natcheva answered once the Whalers got the serve with a kill and a block to right the ship for Nantucket and give them an early lead in the set. Both teams went back and forth trading point for point, with several lead changes that left both teams tied at 19.
Nantucket won the next four points however to force Holbrook to take a timeout with the score 23-19 Nantucket. The Whalers won the next point, and eventually took the set 25-21 and the match 3-1.

Senior Kacey Riseborough was the Whaler's middle and had a strong game with eight blocks and 13 kills. Junior Chloe Marrero also had 13 kills.

Sophomore setter Bianca Santos tied her season-high with 30 assists. The Whalers as a team only had 18 aces, with Addys Del Rosario Gomez leading the way in that category with six.

The Whalers will be in action again on Tuesday when they host Dennis-Yarmouth, their toughest test of the season, at 4 p.m. at the NHS Gym.