WESTBOROUGH – An otherwise undefeated season ended for the Westborough girls volleyball team, Nov. 20, with a loss to Hopkinton in the MIAA Division II State Championships.
The Rangers started the match strong by winning the first set 25-19. But they struggled to hold that momentum, losing the second and third sets 25-23 and 28-26, respectively.
Westborough had a strong fourth set, led by Senior Christine Li who hit two consecutive aces to take a 17-12 lead. But the Hillers came back and eventually won that set 26-24 to take the 3-1 overall win.
Head Coach Roger Anderson led the Rangers through this season, with the team losing just three individual sets throughout their first 21 matches.
“I’m super proud of our girls,” he said following this loss. “They left everything they had on the floor, and we just didn’t execute quite well enough to win the match.”
“I think, offensively, we just couldn’t quite get connected in the moments that we needed to,” he continued. “We were right there in every single game, we felt like we were in control, and we just didn’t execute quite well enough in the end.”
This loss was the final high school volleyball match for four Westborough seniors: Christine Li, Grace Burns, Melissa Kuang, and Makenna Thrush.
“They just brought a tremendous amount of character to our team,” Anderson said of the group of seniors. “Hard work, love, they set the tempo and they’re the reason that we got this match.”
“Not the ending we dreamt of, but just an unbelievable match by two incredible teams,” Westborough Athletic Director Johanna DiCarlo wrote in comments on social media, Nov. 20. “Congratulations [Hopkinton] and heads up Rangers.”
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