The Girls’ Varsity Volleyball team played against Lowell High School on September 23, 2021. Westford lost against Lowell, with the score being 3-1, playing 4 sets in total. Westford had a great offense but struggled to play defense in the game.

In the first set, Junior Mia Rose got the first point for WA by setting the ball over the net.   A noteworthy moment from the first set was when, co-captain senior Jordan Krauss spiked the ball right into the center of the court earning another point for Westford and leading to a slow comeback in the first set. After a brief time-out called by Lowell, Krauss had two back-to-back aces. This put Westford into the lead at 23-24. However, the team needed to win by two in order to win the set. Lowell scored three points immediately after and they took the victory instead, with a final score in the first set of 26-23.

In the second set, senior Jennifer Graffeo hit the ball earning Westford’s first point of the set. However, Westford didn’t win many points this set, with the final score being 25-15.

Westford won the first set in the third match. Lowell scored the first point of the set with an ace right inside the line. Senior Allison McIntosh earned many of Westford’s points during this set. McIntosh earned two back-to-back points: one being an ace and the other a set right over the net. Krauss won the set on the third rally with a hit directly on the backline of the court, thus winning Westford their first set with a score of 25-22.

Finally, during the fourth and final set of the evening, Lowell scored the first point due to Westford’s serve hitting the net. Westford earned their first point with a serve from junior Catherine Crane and junior Alice Guo tipped the ball over the net earning another point. The final set ended with Crane missing the serve, and Lowell winning both the set and match. The final score of the fourth set was 25-17.

Overall Westford played great in their game against LHS. The game was close for the most part and even though Lowell won the game, Westford still gave it their all and worked even harder to try to turn the tide.

“I think we played well enough it’s just we had some mental blocks, crashing into each other going after the same ball,” Head Coach Brandan Eang said. “During the first half of the game it was back-and-forth, but even under the pressure, we came back. We were really competitive today, but we made a few silly mistakes. Half the team has not played at the varsity level so we will probably work on passing next time. Overall, the team has been really good at hitting.”