The North Star Wolves senior girls volleyball team improved to 6-0 on the WECSSAA Tier 1 regular season but had one of their starters injured in the process.
Fresh off a 25-16, 25-13, 25-15 win on the road against the St. Anne Saints last Tuesday night, the Wolves returned home last Thursday evening for a pivotal match against L’Essor with the winning team claiming the division lead. North Star won the match, though lost their first set of the season, 23-25, 25-21 and 25-20.
The Wolves beat L’Essor despite losing a key player to injury as Lillian Mereszak left the floor late in the second set with a knee injury. It was the same knee she injured last year with a torn ACL causing her to miss all of last season.
North Star is already without Addison Prieur, who suffered a knee injury of her own a few months ago. The Wolves already had to play players in different positions and Abby Beaudoin was pressed into service after Mereszak’s injury.
“That is why practice is so important,” said assistant coach Mary Ewer.
Ewer praised the players for stepping up, noting Audrey Dib and Jerzie Rego had to step into new spots and help out.
“I’m very proud of them,” she said.
Mereszak didn’t play against St. Anne, Ewer noted, but other players stepped up and ensured the Wolves got the win.
“The veterans played hard,” she said. “It’s a total team effort.”
Head coach Jeff Miller said they weren’t happy with how they came out against L’Essor, but they improved throughout the match.
“I didn’t think we played well in the first set,” said Miller. “We slowly started getting it back.”
Miller said they felt bad Mereszak got hurt, noting it is frustrating for an athlete if they have to miss any time.
“We have to keep plowing through it,” he said. “It’s been one heck of a year. We’ve had a lot of things thrown at us this year. It hasn’t been easy, that’s for sure.”
The junior Wolves dropped to 0-6, as they lost to St. Anne and L’Essor last week. In the St. Anne match, the juniors fell 25-16, 25-10 and 25-11 while they lost two nights later to L’Essor 25-17, 25-14 and 25-20.
The two teams played at St. Joseph Tuesday night after this issue of the RTT went to press. They host Villanova Thursday with the senior match being at 4 p.m. while the juniors follow at 5:20 p.m.
By Ron Giofu
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