Warwick Vets knew what was coming. That didn’t make it any easier to stop.

The Hurricanes’ volleyball team traveled to Cranston West last Thursday to take on the undefeated Falcons. West [10-0], which features a formidable front row and a powerful attack, had dropped just three games all season. And coming off a 3-1 win over West Warwick [1-10] the Falcons were looking to make a statement.

They didn’t waste any time.

Clinging to a 16-13 lead in game one, West senior Ashley Signoriello went to the service line and quickly turned the tide in the Falcons’ favor. Signoriello served up six aces as West won nine points in a row to close out the team’s 25-13 win. It was just the spark that West needed. From there the Falcons outscored Vets more than two-to-one over the final two games, picking up a 25-10 victory in game two and another 25-13 win in game three, to close out the sweep.

“We started out strong but we dwindled from there,” Vets coach Jean McGarry said. “Their front line was our biggest challenge and we practiced for it. We knew what was coming and we did a better job at the net than we had been doing, but it was still a struggle for us.”

The ’Canes’ struggles were a result of the teams’ match-ups in the front row. West had a handful of players who could go above the net to create offense or throw up a block, while Vets’ size prevented the ’Canes from doing the same. Sinoriello, Madison Macaruso, Angelica Carlino and Anne Gladding provided the Falcons with a multi-faceted attack, leaving Vets to pick its poison.

“We really played together as a team,” West coach Tom Ferri said. “There were a couple of lapses in the first game but we fixed it and moved on from there. We knew coming in that Vets didn’t have a lot of power up front but they are active and they move a lot. They are a hustling team and they keep the ball in play. But when we went to the power and the middle, we were successful.”

Macaruso finished with eight kills and two kill-blocks, Gladding added two kills, a pair of kill-blocks and an ace and Carlino contributed two kills, a kill-block and an ace. But Signoriello did the most damage for West. The senior outside hitter logged match-high nine kills and racked up 10 aces on the night. She served West to another win in game two, picking up three aces as the Falcons scored six straight to close out the win.

Vets didn’t have enough firepower to keep pace with West. As a team the ’Canes finished with six kills on the night, with contributions from Brittany Alejo (two kills), Erica Rosen, Karyssa Cilley, Nicole Mayer and Alyssa Palumbo.

“The effort was there; we just didn’t make the right choices all the time,” McGarry said. “We were off in our setting and we missed some easy plays. There were some errors that West forced with their offense, but we made a lot of errors that were unforced. That’s just the way that it went for us.

Mayer picked up Vets’ only ace of the night, spotlighting the ’Canes’ serve-receive problem. Not only did Vets struggle against the Falcons’ serves, the ’Canes also had difficulty getting their own in, limiting the chances of any sustained offense. Vets had nine service errors in the match, with a few stifling the ’Canes’ momentum before it had a chance to get going.

“We gave away points on some key serves, which we shouldn’t be doing,” McGarry said. “We’d have great rallies and then go and give it right back to them on our next serve. It’s like we would take a step forward and then we’d serve it out and take three steps back. And you could see it on their faces; they were having a hard time bouncing back from that. Some days they can do it, some days they can’t; tonight was one of those nights where we couldn’t.”

The loss dropped Vets to 6-5 in Division II-North, where the ’Canes currently sit fourth in the league standings. With five regular season matches remaining on the schedule, Vets is looking to improve its playoff positioning and will face another tough test tonight at home against Scituate [9-2]. The ’Canes will travel to West Warwick on Thursday. Both games are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.

“Those are teams that we can be very competitive against and we’re hoping to play strong,” McGarry said. “The girls really believed that they could do that [against West] and you could see that in the first game before their bubble burst. This week is going to be the same way. We’re going to play some tough teams but we have to stay positive. If we can do that then we can win some games.”