Falcons move ahead of Pats with sweep

Matt Metcalf
Posted 10/1/15

By MATT METCALF

Sports Editor

The Cranston West girls’ volleyball team moved ahead of Pilgrim in the Division II-South standings with a 3-0 sweep on the road over the Pats on Monday night. …

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Falcons move ahead of Pats with sweep

Posted

By MATT METCALF

Sports Editor

The Cranston West girls’ volleyball team moved ahead of Pilgrim in the Division II-South standings with a 3-0 sweep on the road over the Pats on Monday night.

The win pushed the Falcons to 5-2 on the season, pulling them ahead of Pilgrim by one game as the two teams went into Monday with identical 4-2 records.

“It was a big win for us because we lost two tough matches in a row to two of the top teams in our division, so it was a good win to bounce back,” West head coach Thomas Ferri. “Pilgrim is always tough, they were in the finals last year.”

West took control right out of the gates.

After a back-and-forth start, the Falcons began to distance themselves from the Pats midway through the first game.

A block and an ace from junior Emilia Vaziri on consecutive points allowed West to build an 18-10 cushion.

Vaziri then crushed two aces with the score set at 23-14 to give her team the opening game, 25-14.

West’s momentum carried into the second game too, with it getting an ace from Kimberly Kluglein and another block from Vaziri to race out to a 15-7 advantage.

But then the Pats made a push.

Behind the steady serving of senior captain Nancy Alvarez, Pilgrim went on a 6-0 run to cut its deficit to 15-13.

“Nancy’s fantastic,” Pilgrim head coach Kelly Harrington said. “Her serve is a huge asset to our team. Nancy excels in every position, so we’re running a 6-2 this year so she can hit when she’s in the front row and set when she’s in the back row. We try to capitalize when she’s in the serving box.”

That run was ended by a Vaziri kill, but the Pats continued to battle in search of knotting the match at 1.

A kill from Alvarez tied the game at 18 and a block from Sarah Taylor brought the game to 26-26 a few moments later.

West was able to prevail, though.

It won a point to make it 27-26 before Kathryn Sleboda registered a block to secure a 28-26 win in game two for the Falcons.

“I thought we blocked really well tonight,” Ferri said.

The Pats went back to work in game three with a comeback bid in mind, but the end result was the same.

An ace from Sophia Trapassi midway through what proved to be the third and final game gave West a 14-6 cushion.

The Falcons would go on to cruise to a 25-17 win in that game to close the match with a sweep.

The difference was the play of Vaziri and libero Alexis Tella, in particular, for the Falcons. Vaziri’s hitting and blocking gave Pilgrim fits, as did Tella’s defensive efforts.

“Emilia really picked up her game today, she’s our No. 1 hitter,” Ferri said. “Our other hitters played well, but [Emilia] definitely had a strong game.”

There’s no question that West’s length at the net gave the Pats a tough time.

“They definitely gave us some trouble at the net tonight,” Harrington said. “They triple-blocked our middle hitter, which we tried to adjust to in the second and third game. But overall, I thought we put in a pretty good effort.”

The Pats are still in good shape at 4-3 in the standings. They were looking to bounce back at Narragansett on Wednesday night, but results were unavailable at press time. Pilgrim will now travel to Westerly next Wednesday for a 6:30 p.m. match.

“We’re still in a good spot and we’re having a great season,” Harrington said. “We’re right where we want to be and have the potential to beat any team that we’ve lost to. We’re still just trying to improve with every practice.”

As for West, it will return to action tonight when it travels to West Warwick for a 6 p.m. match.

“Pilgrim never gives up,” Ferri said. “This was a quality win for us.”

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