Starting all over again
Broncos, Villa Novans feel like new programs
BURRILLVILLE — The Woonsocket and Burrillville boys volleyball teams are starting over.
The Broncos, who played their first season of RIIL varsity volleyball in 2019, and the Novans, who joined the league in 2018, expected to be building a program at this point, but the pandemic changed everything.
Without a 2020 season, both teams graduated most of the foundational pieces of their program, which meant when they opened the 2021 season at the Broncodome on Monday night, they were back to square one.
Led by the consistent play of junior setter Kacper Kurowski, senior Kyle Sirypannho and junior middle hitter Malick Ndiaye, the more experienced Novans proved to be too much for a very green Burrillville side. Kurowski served the final 11 points of the opening game, as the Novans cruised to a 2512, 25-14, 25-15 Division III victory.
“We have a few kids who played JV a couple of years ago, so there was a lot of positives to come from this match,” veteran Woonsocket coach Ruth Plante said. “Most of the kids know what they’re doing and I thought Malick did a nice job in the middle. We passed the ball all right today because we’ve figured out who are passes are in practice.”
Burrillville (0-1 Division III) is trying to learn to play the sport on the fly at the varsity level. The team’s captains are seniors Johnny Fernandez and Jacob Hedquist. The other two seniors are Cole Runey and Ayden Tessier. There are two juniors on the team and they’re household names, but it’s because of their play at Levy Rink and not the Broncodome.
Mitchell Farrell and Cam DeSante didn’t play in Monday’s match, but they will see time as soon as they catch up to their teammates.
“This is very, very difficult because we have a brand new team for the second time,” Burrillville coach Jen Carlson said. “All my returners last year were seniors or exchange students, so we would’ve grown last year. Losing that full year is tough. It’s going to be growing pains because most of the kids have never played a sport before, so there’s a learning curve. It’s worth it in the long run when you see the light bulb turn on for them.”
Woonsocket (1-0 Division III) will play nine matches in a seven-team division. Along with the Broncos, Blackstone Valley rival St. Raphael, Johnston, Mount Pleasant, Exeter-West Greenwich and Mt. Hope will also compete for the division title. The Novans play their first match at Savaria Gymnasium on Wednesday afternoon at 5 o’clock against the Panthers.
The Novans jumped out to a 10-4 lead in the opening game, but the underdog Broncos battled back and play their best volleyball of the 75-minute match. The hosts went on an 8-3 run to close the deficit to just one. A service error sent Kurowski to the service line and the setter never left, as the Novans ended the game on a 12-0 run.
“Our main goal is to just get better every day,” Plante said. “After this week, they should all know all the basics. Going forward, it’s just making sure everyone is at practice every day so we can get that consistency we need. The kids served well for the most part and we didn’t let too many balls hit the floor and we communicated.”
Burrillville scored the opening point of the middle game, but then kills from Kurowski and Ndiaye and an ace by Sirypannho sparked a 7-0 run for the Novans, who never trailed the rest of the game. The Broncos cut the deficit to four (12-8), but that was as close as they would get.
Woonsocket scored the first five points of the final game to close out the sweep. The Broncos are back in action on Wednesday night when they travel to Exeter-West Greenwich.
“We just want to continue to build because we’re a brand-new program and we’ve only played for one year,” Carlson said. “We’re brand new all over again. I’m just happy that we have a good number of kids because a lot of the spring programs throughout the school are down in numbers because of how difficult this year has been.”