CHS volleyball team qualifies for state tourney
The Chelsea High volleyball team was scheduled to play in the opening round of the MIAA Division 2 state volleyball tournament yesterday (Wednesday).
Coach Gabriel Morales and his squad were set to make the long trek to Amherst to take on Amherst-Pelham.
Under the new state tourney set-up, the old and familiar sectional format, which formerly was divided into the North, South, Central, and West regions of the state, has been abolished.
Rather, all of the state’s schools compete in their respective divisions, which are based on school-size and other factors (for volleyball, there are five state-wide divisions), across the state.
There are 39 teams that will compete in the Division 2 tourney, of which 32 qualified automatically based upon the MIAA’s power ranking system, a calculation based on strength of schedule and margin of victory, regardless of record (seven of the top 32 schools in the D-2 volleyball ratings have losing records). The other seven teams, of which Chelsea is one, qualified for the tourney because they had better-than .500 records, even though they did not make the top-32 in the power-ranking system.
The Red Devils are seeded 37th in D-2 and Amherst-Pelham Regional is seeded 28th. The winner of their battle will advance to meet Melrose, the fifth seed in D-2, this Saturday at 5:00 at Melrose.
Morales and his squad qualified for the tourney in their last game of the season with a 3-1 victory over Northeast Regional last Thursday. The match point was scored by an ace serve from outside hitter Guidaysis Castro Santiago.
Earlier in the week, the Red Devils kept their tourney hopes alive by defeating East Boston, 3-0, but then suffered a disappointing loss to New Mission, 3-2, which necessitated a win against Northeast.
Strong showing for CHS cross-country teams at GBL Meet
The Chelsea High boys and girls cross country teams wrapped up their 2021 seasons in fine fashion with strong performances at the Greater Boston League Meet that was held last Thursday at Torbert Macdonald Park in Medford.
The CHS boys finished third among the GBL’s eight teams, led by Ian Padilla, who finished in sixth place among the field of 73 runners with a time of 15:27 over the 2.71-mile course.
His fellow Red Devil teammates who competed at the meet and contributed to the victory were Johnny Maldonado, Alejandro Cepeda, Nate Nadow, Juan Alfaro, Carlos Alfaro, Austin Freeman, Marcos Hernandez, Ruben Padilla, Alex Estrada, Jose Olivar, and Jimmy Merino.
On the girls’ side, Lady Red Devil star Gizelle Rodriguez placed third with a clocking of 18:38. She was followed by teammates Gizelle Olivar, Darily Sanchez, Holly Hatleberg, and Rosalinda Rojas, all of whom played key roles in the fourth-place finish for coach Sam Fogel’s squad.