By Avonlea Cummings
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
Basketballs echoed throughout the Medfield gymnasium on Tuesday, January 2nd, it was the first match of the New Year for the MedBall girls' basketball team and they were warming up for a fiery match against the Ashland Clockers. A defensive powerhouse, the Medfield girls dominated the court during the competition winning the game with an outstanding score of 81-33.
As sneakers began to squeak and the girls took action on the court, Medfield began raking up points left and right. With only three seniors, captain Annie Stanton, captain Sadie Cumming, and Mary Palladino the MedBall girls are a young team with immense talent. Each player was confident on the court, ready to take their shots on the net, and defended relentlessly, snagging rebounds when they could. The Medfield girls took the lead 54-17 just after the first half.
Once the second half commenced, both teams took to the court with high energy. Medfield continued to battle the Clockers and face any challenges that came their way. Fans were on the edge of their seats as multiple MedBall girls scored their baskets. Senior captain Annie Stanton led the girls with 17 points at the end of the competition. Following her footsteps was Naya Annigeri with 16 points, senior captain Sadie Cumming had 14 points, and Mary Palladino racked up 11 points for the game. Izzy Kittredge had an outstanding game as well earning the team nine rebounds throughout the match.
Head coach Mark Nickerson couldn’t have been more ecstatic about how the girls played on the court against Ashland, he highlighted the impressive defense and the team chemistry that creates a triumphant team.
“I was very pleased, I thought we played a complete game for the most part tonight which was great to see. We certainly have some good senior leadership with Annie and Sadie as our captains, Mary Palladino is another senior who has been playing great, but we have some players who are still gaining experience. Naya is a freshman and she’s pretty phenomenal, and they will only get better. I’m really excited about what their growth will be during this season. I believe that Annie and Sadie have worked really hard to try to build strong relationships with all the girls on the team. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I know that my best teams are the ones that are the closest, and they’ve been doing a great job. My biggest takeaway from tonight and what I wanted us to focus on was competing for every rebound, we weren’t perfect but rebounded better than we have all season long so far. We really dug in defensively which can be tough to do in a lopsided game, I thought early on we were pressuring them, getting steals, and layups. Offensively, I thought we did phenomenal moving the ball, the ball found so many different players in different spots,” said Nickerson.
The MedBall girls are now 6-1 in the season and will host Millis High on Friday, January 12th at 6:30 PM.
