In their first ISL match of the season, the Middlesex Varsity Volleyball team hosted the athletic and aggressive Tabor Academy squad, and fell short in three hard-fought sets.

The Zebras came out strong at the start of the first set with a solid service run by outside Katy Qin '21. Katy aced her first two serves, putting Middlesex on top. Tabor adjusted their serve receive, and started a long rally, which ended when captain and outside hitter Mayu Lee '20 dug up a hard-hit ball to setter Sophia Poplyk '21 who set up a crushing kill by opposite Natalie McCall '21. A couple of plays later, libero Sofia Dickinson '22 had another good service run, which included a stuffed overpass by captain and middle hitter Kiley Briand '20. On the next play, a long rally finally ended when Natalie got a block touch on a hard-hit attack from Tabor's outside, allowing Sofia to send the dig to Poplyk for a crusher by Mayu. The Zebras continued to stay just ahead for the first half of the set, until Tabor put together a couple of service runs of their own to take the lead and eventually finish the set 16-25.

Middlesex came out swinging in the second set, but a series of unforced errors allowed Tabor to take control of the scoreline early on, forcing the Zebras to play catch up. Solid defense by Sofia and defensive specialist Sevilla Jin '21 allowed Poplyk to run the offense and put together a few runs, featuring several kills by Mayu to narrow the gap toward the end of the set, but the Zebras ultimately fell short 18-25.

The Zebras were encouraged by their improved level of play at the end of the second set and were determined to extend the match in the third. Kiley adjusted her block and managed to stuff Tabor's hard-swinging middle, forcing Tabor to adapt. The scoreline stayed tight throughout the set, with a key sideout coming from a big solo block kill by middle Morgan Clapp '22. Poplyk then rotated back to serve and dished up a first-serve ace. The next play ended with another kill by Katy assisted by Poplyk, and forced Tabor to take a timeout to regroup. Poplyk notched another ace before the Seawolves ultimately earned the sideout, and the third set ended 23-25, Tabor.

The coaches are encouraged by the improvement in each set, and are now looking forward to hosting Milton Academy on Saturday, 9/25 at 2:30pm for their second ISL match of the season.