Volleyball: Westwood Earns Hard-Fought Victory in Critical Road Match With Ashland

By: Tom Leyden

October 17, 2025

The Westwood Volleyball team avenged a loss to Ashland from earlier in the season and got out of town with a 3-1 win over the Clockers after a tightly contested match in the Ashland High School gym.

The first set was tied four times before Westwood was able to pull away. Tav Lodovico had two kills to her credit, and Veronica Reeves put a couple ferocious swings on winning points. Livy Leyden had three aces and two kills and Lyla Hayes served well. Westwood’s lead hovered around five points for much of the set through 22-17, and then the Wolverines scored three of the next four points to win 25-18.

Ashland answered with a strong second set, never relinquishing control after a 7-7 tie was broken. The key stretch was a run of six straight Clocker points that made the score 19-12. Elaina Early made a number of plays at the net and Nicole Chin was strong on the front line and also behind the line serving. Ashland took the second set 25-15. The highlight for Westwood was a pair of monster plays at the net by Reeves.

Set Three was incredibly dramatic, tied nine times with a number of lead-changes. Jennifer Lin had a key kill to tie the score at 16, and Leyden had a killer block to tie the score at 18, followed by an ace from Mia Steinmetz and a kill from Narintra Kamolratanapiboon to open a two-point lead at 20-18. From there, Lulu Fenton had two kills and Reeves finished the set with a big block as Westwood won it 25-21 to take a 2-1 lead.

The fourth set once again was nip and tuck with the scored tied seven times all the way up to 20-20. Both teams took turns with the lead and many rallies were more than 30 seconds with multiple players involved. One specific rally started with Leyden taking a shot to the side of her head, and almost 40 seconds later the point finally ended when Fenton finished a kill to make the score 14-12. After a brief delay to make sure she wasn’t hurt, Leyden delivered a rocket serve that Ashland couldn’t return to make it 15-12. Hayes delivered an ace and Samara Maroun, as well, to break the 20-20 tie. The match ended with Westwood scoring the last two points – a Steinmetz kill and a Lin ace – to take the third set 25-22.

With the win, Westwood improves to 9-7 on the season and returns home for a critical TVL Large matchup with Hopkinton on Monday at 6pm. The Hillers won the first matchup between the schools earlier this season.

JV THRILLER

The JV match extended to a third set and Westwood pulled off a wild rally to win. Down 14-10 with Ashland needing just one more point to win, the Wolverines rattled off five straight points to take a 15-14 lead. A Westwood serve went long to tie the score at 15, but the Wolverines scored the next two to win the third set and take the match 2-1.