Panthers move to 9-4 in win over Rockland

The Whitman-Hanson Panthers hosted Rockland tonight and won a back and forth match 3-1. Game scores were 11-25, 25-20, 28-26 and 25-18. In the first set the Panthers really struggled against the Rockland serve and found themselves down 11-3 early. Once Rockland got out to that the early lead the Panthers weren't able to recover and continued to struggle with their passing game giving away several points on bad passes or lazy defense. In the second the Panthers came to life and were able to get out an early lead with strong passing and solid setting by Alyssa Gacicia. Rockland kept pulling the score back and the set went back and forth until the Panthers were able to pull away thanks to strong serving and defense that allowed the Panther offense to go on the attack to earn the second set victory. In the third set the Panthers looked like they were going to give another set away with poor defense and errors in the attack. But the Panthers rallied together and slowly worked their way back from a large deficit to pull even with Rockland. Rockland then went up 21-20 and the teams played back and forth until they pushed the Panthers to set point at 22-24. Facing game point the Panthers stepped to the service line and served tough to force Rockland out of their offense giving the Panthers a chance to pull the game even at 24-24 with strong serving from Madison Scott. Both teams then went back and forth until the Panthers were able to win the set with key attacks from Sophie O'Brien and Chiara Cassiano. In the fourth set the Panthers came out strong and never really looked back playing with a lead throughout the entire set. Rockland played tough and tried to rally back into the set but the Panthers play at the net and on defense kept the Panthers in the lead. The Panthers were able to seal the match victory 25-18 to move to 9-4 on the season. Playing well for the Panthers were Cassiano with 9 kills, O'Brien with 8 kills and Sophia Raiche with 13 serve receives and 19 digs. The Panthers are now 1 win away from clinching a playoff berth and host Plymouth North on Thursday night.