Hawks help playoff hopes with sweep of EWG

Brenton Bauerle
Posted 5/21/15

As the spring season wears on, what once felt like a sprint quickly starts to feel like the last few legs of a marathon. Such was the case in the Bishop Hendricken boys’ volleyball match against …

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Hawks help playoff hopes with sweep of EWG

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As the spring season wears on, what once felt like a sprint quickly starts to feel like the last few legs of a marathon. Such was the case in the Bishop Hendricken boys’ volleyball match against Exeter-West Greenwich on Thursday, as the Hawks did their best to simply escape with a win and some much needed rest in the course of their 3-0 sweep of the Scarlet Knights.

Hendricken opened the game missing one starter due to injury – star outside hitter Dan Flaherty, who sat with what head coach Mike Harrington termed a minor ankle tweak – and elected to sit another at the start of the match for rest purposes. As such, the Hawks entered game one with a makeshift lineup that saw a few players playing out of position, which caused some apparent confusion in terms of the Hawks’ rotation. Despite the ad hoc nature of the Hawks’ lineup, however, they had little issue dispatching a less talented EWG squad, as they took the first game by double-digits by simply keeping the ball in play and waiting for the Knights to commit unforced errors.

In the second game, Harrington reached even deeper into his bench and put out a lineup that was unorthodox to say the least, with a lefty, Jake Eland, hitting on the outside rather than in his natural right side position or a backup setter entering midway through the frame. Despite the continuous turnover, Hendricken still dominated play, as they opened with a 9-1 run highlighted by a five-serve streak by Eland, and held a commanding 15-point lead for most of the set.

“There’s no charity here,” said Harrington when asked about inserting his team’s reserves. “Everyone is expected to be able to play and contribute, and I thought the guys did a good job of showing that today.”

While the Hawks by no means had their regular lineup out on the court, they were still consistently able to generate offense, especially against EWG’s middle hitters, who seemed overmatched for most of the night. In particular, middle hitter RJ Barton had a field day running quick balls in the middle and hitting over the top of the opposing block, registering an impressive 11 kills on only 13 attempts.

Entering the third set, it was obvious that the match was going to go Hendricken’s way – the only question was how many games it would take. Due to a bevy of serving and hitting errors, some of which could be attributed to having players out of position, the Hawks played the Scarlet Knights even for the majority of the third game, eventually landing on an 18-18 tie as the game wore down. Errors continued to haunt EWG, however, as over the final seven points of the match, the Scarlet Knights missed two serves and badly misplayed two others en route to gifting Hendricken the closing victory of the match.

With the win, Hendricken continued its march toward the playoffs, essentially guaranteeing a spot in the upcoming state tournament.

“We’re going to face a really good team either way,” said Harrington in regards to his team’s playoff positioning. “But we are never worried about winning on the scoreboard. We are worried about playing hard and giving each and every play our all.”

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