Franklin girls’ volleyball kicked off its season with a challenging match against a strong Oliver Ames squad and pushed through a competitive four-set affair before falling 3-1. The Panthers come into the season off a 15-5 campaign that earned them the No. 9 seed in D1 and a trip to the round of 8, where they were ousted by eventual champions Newton North. Oliver Ames arrives with a similarly high pedigree after a 17-3 season and a run to the D2 title match, finishing last year as the No. 2 seed and losing a competitive 3-1 final to Westborough.
Last night’s match lived up to the billing. Franklin pushed the Tigers in the fourth set, leading by as many as six late before Oliver Ames erased the deficit and closed out the set to deny the Panthers a fifth. Franklin’s performance showed they remain very much in the mix for postseason success, with the kind of late-set fight that will be valuable across the season.
The Panthers get another test tomorrow in a meeting with King Philip Regional, another playoff-capable D1 opponent. Franklin will look to take lessons from this opener and convert its competitive moments into more wins as the season unfolds.
