Erin Root and Old Rochester put a 16-match win streak on the line against Groton-Dunstable

MATTAPOISETT Old Rochester has not lost a volleyball match since Sept. 17, and on Friday night junior Erin Root and the Bulldogs carry that 16-match streak into the MIAA Division 3 quarterfinals against Groton-Dunstable.

The No. 2 seed Bulldogs (19-2) host the No. 10 Crusaders (16-6) at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, at Old Rochester Regional High School, 135 Marion Road, Mattapoisett. The winner reaches the state semifinals against No. 3 Lynnfield, which swept No. 6 Weston on Thursday.

It is one of two Division 3 quarterfinals on the South Coast tonight, with No. 4 Case hosting No. 5 Newburyport in Swansea at the same hour. The two South Coast Conference teams sit in opposite halves of the bracket, so Old Rochester and Case could meet again only in the state final.

Root leads a deep Bulldogs attack

Root, a junior who plays right side, middle and outside for head coach Jimmy Oliveira, has 267 kills this fall, 4.1 a set, on the stats Old Rochester had posted to MaxPreps as of Thursday. She also has 53 aces, 142 digs and 235 serve receptions and hits .310, and she put down 24 kills when the Bulldogs beat Case 25-17, 30-28, 25-27, 25-19 at home on Oct. 21.

Senior outside hitter Molly Franco has led the Bulldogs in kills in both tournament matches. She had 12 kills in the 25-9, 25-14, 25-15 sweep of No. 34 Salem on Saturday, Nov. 7, and 15 more in Tuesday's 25-18, 25-27, 25-17, 25-13 win over No. 15 Hanover, according to the MaxPreps box scores. Franco leads the team with 163 digs and 242 receptions to go with 147 kills.

The middle is where Old Rochester has been hardest to stop. Junior Eve Skomal hits .375 with 109 kills and had 10 kills on .526 hitting in the 19-25, 25-18, 25-14, 25-15 win at Dartmouth on Oct. 30, the match that paid back one of the Bulldogs' two losses. Junior Piper Newell leads the team with 37 blocks, and junior Molly Spenard hit .600 against Hanover.

Running it all is a freshman, setter Adrianne Chua, who has 490 assists, 139 digs and a team-high 74 aces, 1.1 a set, and junior defensive specialist Lucy Lombard adds 48 aces. Old Rochester has served 305 aces as a team, and it had 16 against Hanover and 15 against Salem.

The Bulldogs went 13-0 to finish first in the South Coast Conference and are 12-1 at home. Their only losses came early, 3-1 to Dartmouth at home on Sept. 11 and 3-1 at Weston on Sept. 17. Last November their tournament ended in a 3-0 loss at Lynnfield, the team waiting in the semifinals this year.

Groton-Dunstable's season

Groton-Dunstable finished first in Midland-Wachusett B at 7-0 and is 9-2 on the road. The Crusaders swept No. 23 Shawsheen Valley Tech to open the tournament, then won at No. 7 East Longmeadow on Monday, Nov. 9, taking a 28-26 first set, dropping the second 28-26 and closing it 25-18 and 25-10. They come in on a five-match winning streak.

Sophomore Molly Daigle, a middle and outside hitter, is their top attacker with 112 kills, 2.9 a set, on .327 hitting, plus 91 digs and a team-high 165 receptions, on the stats Groton-Dunstable posted to MaxPreps through late October. Senior middle Lilah Tully has 69 kills and 28 aces, and senior right side Kelleana Kien has 67 kills.

Senior setter Ella Barske runs the offense with 268 assists and 31 aces, senior libero Ellery Kolodziej leads the back row with 118 digs, 3.0 a set, and senior Alma Sullivan leads the team with 11 blocks for head coach David Parnell.

Groton-Dunstable has played a hard schedule outside its league. Five of its six losses came against Westford Academy (twice), Acton-Boxborough, Algonquin and Wachusett, and it lost to Ursuline Academy 3-0 on Sept. 16 before beating Ursuline 3-1 on the road on Oct. 23. Two of those losses, at Westford Academy on Sept. 3 and at Algonquin on Oct. 13, went five sets.

Side by side

Old Rochester and Groton-Dunstable, side by side (MaxPreps and the MIAA bracket, read Nov. 13)

	Old Rochester	Groton-Dunstable
Seed	No. 2	No. 10
Record	19-2 (17-2 entering the tournament)	16-6 (14-6 entering the tournament)
League	13-0, first in the South Coast Conference	7-0, first in Midland-Wachusett B
Sets won and lost	59 and 11	52 and 21
Streak	16 straight wins	Five straight wins
Round of 32	Beat No. 34 Salem 3-0	Beat No. 23 Shawsheen Valley Tech 3-0
Round of 16	Beat No. 15 Hanover 3-1	Won 3-1 at No. 7 East Longmeadow
Kills leader	Erin Root, junior, 267 (4.1 a set)	Molly Daigle, sophomore, 112 (2.9 a set)
Setter	Adrianne Chua, freshman, 490 assists	Ella Barske, senior, 268 assists
Aces leader	Adrianne Chua, 74	Ella Barske, 31
Digs leader	Molly Franco, senior, 163	Ellery Kolodziej, senior, 118
Blocks leader	Piper Newell, junior, 37	Alma Sullivan, senior, 11
MaxPreps state rank	18th	53rd
Head coach	Jimmy Oliveira	David Parnell

Player numbers are from the stats each team has entered on MaxPreps: Old Rochester's as of Thursday, Groton-Dunstable's through late October, so the Crusaders' totals run short of a full season.

Our read

Old Rochester's serve is the first problem Groton-Dunstable has to solve, since the Bulldogs have averaged more than four aces a set on the stats they posted, and Chua, Root and Lombard can put a team in a hole before it runs a play. Groton-Dunstable answers with Kolodziej and Daigle in serve receive, and if they keep Barske setting from a good pass, Daigle and Tully can hit with anyone in the middle.

Groton-Dunstable has gone the full five sets twice this fall, both on the road, while Old Rochester has dropped just three sets in its last 10 matches and has not played a fifth set all season. Groton-Dunstable won a 28-26 first set at East Longmeadow on Monday and lost the second by the same score, and a close first set tonight would test a home team that has mostly played from in front.

How to watch and what comes next

The match streams live on the NFHS Network, a subscription service, from Old Rochester's school page. Tickets are sold online only, at $11.50 for general admission on GoFan, under the MIAA's fall tournament price list. South Coast 360 will have the final Friday night.

The winner plays No. 3 Lynnfield, 19-1 in the MIAA seedings, in the Division 3 semifinals. In the other semifinal, the Case and Newburyport winner meets the winner of No. 1 Bellingham and No. 8 Pembroke, who play Saturday at 5 p.m.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.