SRA TOPS RAIDERS
Saints advance to first final tomorrow at RIC
PAWTUCKET — St. Raphael Academy coach Eric Silveira says he and the Saints were all in on the same plan since the first day of organized workouts back in mid-to-late August – that is, to earn a berth in the Division III championship match.
Thanks to a harder-than-it-looked 3-0 semifinal sweep of No. 4 Shea at Alumni Hall on Thursday night, the Saints will be marching in that direction come Saturday morning, before they – as the top-seeded entry – will battle No. 2 Rogers for the state crown at Rhode Island College’s The Murray Center at high noon.
The Vikings outlasted third-ranked Narragansett in the other semi on Thursday, 3-1.
“Last year, we lost to Johnston in the semifinals, and Johnston was always one of those teams in the mix for the state title,” Silveira explained following SRA’s 25-17, 25-13, 26-24 triumph before perhaps 140 folks. “We pretty much knew last season we were an underdog.
“But when we came in this year, I knew what I wanted from the girls, and the told me what they wanted, and that was (collectively) to get to the final,” he added. “Now we’re there, and it feels amazing. This is our seventh year as a program, and this is my second year as its head coach, and it’s a terrific feeling.
“We shared a common goal, but we’re only halfway there. The goal was not to get to the final, but win it.”
The Saints improved to 16-1 overall (not including an early-season non-league loss to Division I representative Cranston West), and did so on the backs of many. Against Shea, sophomore Tatyana Vicente manufactured 16 digs, a dozen kills and seven aces, while senior co-captain Sydney Charette chipped in 12 digs, nine spikes and four aces.
Other key contributions came from sophomore setter Maddie Nault (31 assists, six aces, two kills); freshman Victoria Adegboyega (seven drills, six blocks; senior Korto Jackson (eight blocks, four kills); and sophomore Victoria Jacques (four aces).
Shea’s campaign ended at 9-8, and head coach Christina Daily also stated afterward that she suspected her girls were still reveling in an upset quarterfinal win over No. 4 Central rather than concentrate on the task at hand.
“I thought we were too focused on that early on,” she said.
Senior outside hitter Antonette Cooper paced the Raiders with six kills, while classmate Ashley Torres finished with the same, and junior Sayara Silwal managed 22 assists. Sophomore Allison Dos Santos tacked on three blocks and two kills.
In the opening set, the Raiders took a 2-0 lead to start strong, but the Saints came back to tie it at 2-2 on Charette’s powerful serve, then took the advantage for good when officials whistled Torres for a double-hit.
SRA later gained leads of 9-4, 17-10 and 20-12 before junior Janiah Thompson served up a couple of points to slice it to 20-15. In the end, though, a Vicente spike and Jackson block sealed the game at 2517.
In the second, the Raiders didn’t have much of a chance, not after Charette went to the service line to start and produced eight straight points, three by ace, for the 8-0 cushion. A Thompson ace knifed it 8-2, but Vicente managed four straight aces midway through the game to turn a 12-6 lead into a 16-6 blowout.
SRA eventually captured that set, 25-13, after another Jackson carom for the penultimate point and a Raiders’ unforced passing error on the last.
Daily’s bunch, however, made a quick turnaround after her speech between sets.
“Our No. 1 outside hitter (junior Alia Darius) was on the bench because her game wasn’t 100 percent; she just wasn’t producing,” Daily said. “I wanted to switch it up, hopefully get something going. I told them in the third that the Central match was, to me, a long way off, and I think we began to realize we needed to play better, a little harder.”
Just like that, the Raiders did. On Thompson’s initial serve, Torres pounded a kill, and – after a sideout – Torres mustered two more from behind the stripe, one an ace, to make it 4-1. But the Saints turned the tide once more, with Nault garnering five straight points on her serve, two of them on consecutive Jackson caroms, for the 8-6 advantage.
The hosts continued to maintain the lead until a scary moment occurred with them holding the 16-13 cushion and Charette behind the line. Senior co-captain Sierra Gonzalez had made a brilliant dig on a Raiders’ roundhouse rip, but suddenly fell to the floor writhing in agony.
Immediately, the crowd’s enthusiasm turned eerily quiet as an official and Silveira tended to the fallen athlete.
After a few moments, she was able to get off the court, doing so to all-encompassing applause.
“I just went down because I felt extreme pain in my right leg,” she offered. “I didn’t know what it was at first; the official came over and asked me if I felt a ‘pop,’ but I said, ‘No, it feels more like a really bad charley horse.
“It ended up getting rubbed out, but I still feel it,” she added. “I just wanted to get back in there, help us finish the match and win.”
That was easier said than done. The Saints won the next point, but the Raiders battled tooth-and-nail, eventually tying it for the fifth tie at 22-22. With Gonzalez at the serve immediately after the deadlock, Adegboyega dropped a push and Gonzalez smoked an ace for the 24-22 lead, but a Silwal dink tied it for the sixth tie at 24-24.
Adegboyega, though, closed it out with a lucky kill off the cord, then an easy block to cap the 26-24 thriller.
“Sierra is one of our senior captains and leaders, so when she went down, I think our girls got a little scared; we lost a few points because they were worried, focusing more on her than the game,” Silveira said. “I told them from the sideline to calm down, she’s fine. Now just get the net point, and they did.
“I’ve been to two finals as a player [at Tolman, in 2013 and ‘14], but my first as a coach, and it’s incredible. Still, like I said, we’re not done yet.”