Panthers sweep frustrated Northmen
NS still in search of first Division II win
NORTH SMITHFIELD — Don’t let Monday night’s sweep at the hands of visiting Johnston or the North Smithfield volleyball team’s winless record headed into the third week of the Division II season fool you, the Northmen are a really solid squad.
Monday’s match against the talented Panthers was a microcosm of the Northmen’s season. Led by the play of senior outside hitter Meaghan Marcoux and junior middle hitter Laura Matchett, the Northmen went point for point with Johnston in the first two games.
But little mistakes – communication errors and service errors – put the Northmen in a hole they never could work their way out of. The Panthers received strong efforts from libero Jaylen Mokina and Brynn Roche to leave Lovett Gymnasium with a 25-25, 2624, 25-17 victory.
“Serving was something we need to work on because when you miss 10 in the first two games, that’s a problem,” Marcoux said. “I also feel like we played down because we’re a good team this year, unlike previous years, so if we had a little more energy we could’ve won those first two games.
“Our passing was there, but our hitting was a little off. Missing hits drains your energy because you don’t want to make another mistake.”
“We’re looking much better because we had to quarantine before the start of the season, so we fell behind, but we’re starting to get our rhythm,” NS coach Brian Burnham said. “Our passing is so much better than it was in the past seasons, but sometimes we get tentative with our hitting. We want them to attack, but when you make a mistake, you get tentative and just try to keep the ball in play.”
North Smithfield (0-3 Division II) hit the road for the second of its three matches this week, but the Northmen aren’t going far. They’ll make the short trip down Route 146 to Lincoln Middle School to face a Lincoln squad also looking for some confidence early in the season.
Johnston (3-1 Division II) led by as many as four points in the first game, but Marcoux killed off four straight game points at the service line. The Panthers called a timeout and immediately recorded a side out to clinch the game.
The second game was filled with controversy because the Panthers were caught out of rotation on two occasions. Without a down ref monitoring both team’s lineups, both teams are basically playing on the honor system, but Burnham said he was tracking the Panthers rotation most of the match and that paid off late in the second game when Johnston had the wrong server at the line and the Northmen earned a point to cut its deficit to 23-21.
“They had a lefty who was tough, but their rotation was out and I think that might’ve taken away from my team,” Burnham said. “I said ‘Let me focus on them,’ because they were out of rotation quite a bit and they have a history of being out of rotation. They were way out of rotation for several plays and that would’ve been three or four points.”
When the lone referee eventually put the Panthers back into the proper rotation, they broke a 24-all tie with two straight points to take a commanding lead in the match.
The tight defeats in the first two games clearly left the Northmen deflated because their passing, which had been solid in the first two games, fell apart in the final game. The home side led 3-1, but then the Panthers responded with a 15-3 run to take a 10-point lead. Outside hitter Madisyn Harnois-Lafreniere and Amanda Lough delivered kills in the middle of the game, but the Northmen couldn’t get closer than seven points for the rest of the final game.
“We are going in the right direction, but for some reason we were nervous tonight,” Marcoux said. “Burrillville lost to Johnston and we lost to Burrillville, so we were thinking that if Burrillville lost to them then so were we. It was just a combination of things and we just got in our heads a little too much.”