Hurricanes gaining strength

Posted 9/18/14

It’s only played three matches at this point in the season, but the Warwick Vets girls’ volleyball team is as pleased as it’s been in quite some time.

The ’Canes are 2-1 on the season, …

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Hurricanes gaining strength

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It’s only played three matches at this point in the season, but the Warwick Vets girls’ volleyball team is as pleased as it’s been in quite some time.

The ’Canes are 2-1 on the season, with their second win coming in the form of a 3-0 sweep of Westerly on Tuesday night. They also own a 3-2 win over defending Division II runner-up Narragansett, and a 3-1 loss – which had some positives – to unbeaten Cranston West.

For a team that won just two matches during all of last year’s 18-match season, reaching that point already this year is a sign that things are looking up.

“All in all, as a team, they’re working at playing together and it’s coming,” said Vets head coach Jean McGarry. “I see progress every day in the gym, in practice as well as in games.”

The ’Canes currently trail unbeaten Cranston West, West Warwick and East Greenwich in D-II-South.

Tuesday’s match was perhaps the team’s most complete thus far. Vets and Westerly came in with matching 1-1 records, and the teams looked even in game one. The ’Canes ended up with a 25-21 victory, but they trailed as late as 20-19. Yet, in the next two games, Vets flexed its muscles, winning 25-18 and 25-12 to finish the job.

“I’m totally pleased with the way they were playing,” McGarry said. “I think they get slightly intimidated when the teams come in and they’re not really sure of themselves if they’re going to be able to play with them. The first game we usually have a feeling out period. But once they realized what the other team was like and they had some confidence in themselves, it was much better.”

Emily Walason was a force at the net all night for Vets, racking up 14 kills over the three games. She had kills on the last two points of game one, two very early in game two and three down the stretch in game three while Vets was pulling away.

Liz Iadevaia added five kills. Sam Beaufort led the team with strong setting.

“Their offensive play was much better tonight than it’s been in a long time,” McGarry said. “We were making good passes, our setters were getting to the ball and giving our hitters an opportunity to hit.”

Vets trailed for a large portion of the first game, and by as many as three at 16-13 and 17-14. But it rallied from there, taking an 18-17 lead on two Westerly errors, an ace from Mariana Brawn and a kill by Iadevaia.

Westerly came back and led 20-19 on a kill by Andrea Morrone, but Walason had her big hits down the stretch, and Jess Tyree added one as well to help Vets pull out the win.

“They’re starting to see the importance of playing together,” McGarry said.

In game two, Westerly seemed poised to strike back when it went up 11-8 on an ace by Julianna Morrone, yet Vets won eight of the next 10 points to take a 16-13 lead and force the Bulldogs into a timeout. Walason had a kill and Iadevaia had two aces, while the rest of the points came on Westerly errors.

Vets continued to separate from there, taking a 22-14 lead – which gave it a 14-3 run – and never looking back. Westerly made consecutive errors to end the game.

That win put Vets up two games to none, but it hadn’t officially won the match yet. Against Narragansett, it led 2-0 before the Mariners won the next two games to force a game five.

Vets eventually won that fifth game, but it didn’t want to let the match get that far on Tuesday.

“Just because you’re up two games doesn’t mean you let up,” McGarry said.

Westerly never had a chance, with the ’Canes taking a 5-0 lead thanks to an ace by Beaufort and a kill by Walason. That lead went to 13-5 not long afterwards, and the closet Westerly got the rest of the way was six points at 14-8. Vets largest lead was its eventual winning-margin, 13 points.

The team committed just one service error in that game while closing it out.

Beaufort led the attack from the service line with 10 aces, while Rhianna Bellows had seven and Brawn had four.

“They’re hitting them over, and that’s our thing. Initially when we first started the season we were trying to earn points from the baseline,” McGarry said. “What they needed to understand is that you can’t earn points if you can’t put it in play. Now we’re working on consistency.”

The ’Canes are in a good spot, but they’ll have to keep winning in order to keep pace with some of the traditional powers in Division II. Their next match is today at 0-3 Toll Gate at 6 p.m.

The Titans moved down this year from Division I.

“With the unity that they’re starting to show, it’s not going to matter,” McGarry said. “They can learn to play against pretty much anyone.”

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