St. Raphael suffers first D-III defeat Narragansett claims battle of unbeatens
NARRAGANSETT — There were two major momentum swings in St. Raphael and Narragansett’s Division III girls volleyball battle of the unbeatens on Wednesday. Both went against the Saints, and both came in the final stage of two-point games.
The Mariners, on the back of those two late overturned calls and a monster night from sophomore Lauren
Aldrich, handed SRA their first defeat of the season, 3-1 (26-24, 15-25, 26-24, 2521). Aldrich had 17 kills, eight digs and two blocks, while the Saints were led by team captain Sydney Charette and her 12 aces.
“You have to give it to Saint Ray’s,” Mariner coach Abby Hummel said. “They had a great night. Their starting setter went down in the fourth, which makes a huge difference. That would make a big difference on my team, any team. It was still close, you have to give it to them. They’re a great team.”
“We’ve only faced one other really tough team, Rogers,” SRA head coach Eric Silveira said. “Tough drive, tough atmosphere. They’re a good team. Honestly I thought they were better [than Narragansett].
“Our energy level at the Rogers game was what kept us in that game and won us that game. Our energy level tonight was up and down.”
At the tail end of an even first set, it appeared that Victoria Adegboyega had slammed home the winning point at 25-23. While the Saints celebrated handing Gansett their first set loss of the season, the referee waved his arms and blew his whistle.
The officials had a conference, but ultimately decided that Adegboyega had contacted the net on her swing. The Mariners took advantage of their new life, scoring the next two points to win the set.
Again in Game 3, the Saints huddled up to celebrate a key point that would be taken away from them. Sierra Gonazlez had spiked the ball into empty space, but after a Mariner protest, the officials ruled that it was the fourth hit on the Saints side of the net.
What could have been a 25-24 Saints lead in Game 3 turned into a 25-24 Mariner advantage. The SRA cheering section and bench vehemently disagreed with both critical calls, but Silveria didn’t want to dwell on it.
“As a player, I tell them to control what you can control,” he said. “You can’t control what the officials do.”
There was no frustration for the Saints in Game 2. Captain Charette took the serve to start the set, and helped her team out an 11-0 lead. She had four consecutive aces at one point, and aced the opponents on seven of the first 11 points.
“Sydney’s been phenomenal for us all year,” Silveira said. “She’s our leader in serving aces. She brings an attitude and energy to the court that brings our level of play up.”
“Great server,” added Hummel. “Very good hitter as well. They were just on tonight [with their serves]. We weren’t ready.”
The Saints easily held on to win the second game thanks to Charette’s fast start. Game 4 was shaping up to be another nail-biter, but an injury to sophomore setter Madison Nault forced Silveira deep into his short bench.
“We’ve never been in a situation where out setter went down,” he said. “Our bench capitalized, filling in for her. They were fighting the entire game, regardless of the score. I think we did a nice job staying in the game.”
The now-depleted Saints drew within two points of the lead at 22-20, but couldn’t get any closer than that. The good news for St. Raphael is that they won’t have to wait long to get another crack at the first-place Mariners.
“Defensive adjustments,” will be key when they play each other again on Oct. 17, said Silveira. “We didn’t attack the ball very well out of the middle. We need to do better hitting the ball down. We’re hitting them high and deep instead.
“Our serve-receive and our serving was good for the most part. In the first set, we missed four or five serves in a two-point game. That changed the match.”
SRA is now 9-1, while Narragansett moves to 8-0.
CLIPPERS DOWNED IN FIVE
SOUTH KINGSTOWN — The Cumberland girls volleyball team made a drastic change to its lineup just two days before Wednesday night’s Division I road clash with talented South Kingstown.
The change nearly paid off. Cumberland coach Ruth Plante elected to bring up JV setter Kat Cardoso and run a 6-2 offense, which allowed All-State setter Laurel Houle to attack when she’s in the front row. Cumberland claimed the second and third games Wednesday night, but the Rebels hung on for a 25-22, 19-25, 13-25, 25-22, 1510 victory.
“We only had two days of practice with the new lineup before we used it in the game, but I thought the kids played well,” Plante said. We passed well all night and we serve-received really well. The kids dug well, but we made bad errors at some bad times. We trailed the entire fifth game because of a variety of errors.”
Senior outside hitter Emily Bennett delivered nine kills to go along with 21 digs, two blocks and two aces. Remy McDermott and senior middle Emma Karten each had 11 kills, while senior libero Allison Raposo led the defense with 29 assists.
Cumberland (2-7 Division I) returns to the Wellness Center tonight to tangle with East Providence..
MOUNT SWEEPS EAST
WOONSOCKET — This time, the Mount St. Charles volleyball team put a team away after winning the first two games.
After winning the first two games of its last two league matches only to see its opponent win the next two, Mount put away Cranston East 25-13, 25-22, 25-14 Wednesday night thanks to eight kills and two digs from Paige McCreight and 14 digs from Katie Champagne.
“As we’re playing these kids, the younger kids are starting to find their voices and that’s helping us,” Mount coach Josh D’Abate said. “Tonight, we played with good energy. Even though we kind of let them back into the second game, I like the way we battled and kept playing.”
Mount St. Charles (7-2 Division I) travels to Barrington Tuesday night.