Playing at home on Saturday, Deerfield defeated the visiting Taft Rhinos, 3-0.
It was our last regular-season home match so we got to celebrate the graduating players from both teams with a beautifully-decorated gym (thank you frosh, sophomores, and particularly juniors!) and a quick announcement at the beginning of the match. A huge congratulations to the Deerfield volleyball class of ‘23: Zoe Gavros, Meghan Holland, Donald Hutchinson (manager), Natalie Meyer, Georgia Sackrey, Cate Shanahan, Elle Stearns, and Caroline Weller. Thank you for everything you have done, and continue to do, to strengthen our team. So much gratitude!
Once it was match time, our starting line-up of all seniors got right to business, pushing to an initial lead of 11-4 on a service run from Shanahan. Taft did a nice job extending rallies, but the balanced attack from Deerfield (including from outside hitter Weller) was able to prevail in the first set, 25-18.
The second set again saw Deerfield take control early, this time aided by long service runs from sub Evie Mokarow ‘24 and from Holland, leading to a set score of 25-14.
Particular shout-outs to our middles Sackrey and Harmoni Dobbins ‘26 for their excellent hits, right-sides Meyer and Evelyn Kunde ‘26 for hitting both in and out of system, setters Holland and Wuyee Ke ‘26, and passing from Gavros and Stearns. With a raucous crowd cheering the last points, Deerfield finished the set, 25-11.
Thanks to Taft for making the long trip.
Deerfield hits the road for all three matches in the final week of the regular season, starting with NMH on Monday at 4:30pm.