Pats fall; still have shot at 2 seed

Posted 10/30/14

Outside of undefeated East Greenwich, no one in Division II was hotter than the Pilgrim girls’ volleyball team heading into Monday’s match-up with Cranston West.

The suddenly surging Falcons …

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Pats fall; still have shot at 2 seed

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Outside of undefeated East Greenwich, no one in Division II was hotter than the Pilgrim girls’ volleyball team heading into Monday’s match-up with Cranston West.

The suddenly surging Falcons found a way to cool them down.

West overcame a two games to one deficit on the road to rally for a 3-2 win over Pilgrim. The Pats had won nine of their previous 10 matches – including a sweep of West back on Sept. 30 – but the Falcons dug deep for wins of 25-22 in game four and 15-10 in game five to take the match.

It was the fourth win in a row for West since a 3-2 loss to Cranston East on Oct. 8, and it put it back in second place in D-II-South.

At 10-4, the Falcons leapfrogged Pilgrim in the standings. The Pats are currently 11-5, as they defeated Narragansett 3-0 Tuesday to close out the season. That leaves the pressure on the Falcons to win their final two matches in order to retain second.

West was scheduled to take on West Warwick on Wednesday, and then has a continuation match against East Greenwich on Thursday. In that match, the Falcons are down two games to none and 15-12 in the third game.

The No. 2 seed in the division is important for both Pilgrim and West, as the top two teams in each division get a bye into the quarterfinal round of the playoffs.

The Pats, despite the loss, still like their chances.

“I told the girls not to hang their heads at all,” said Pilgrim head coach Kelly Harrington. “We battled a really good team, all five games. That’s just getting us ready to perform in the playoffs.”

Pilgrim was up and down in the first two games, winning game one 25-18 and losing the second one by an identical score. In the third game, West led 21-20, but Pilgrim won five of the final six points to win 25-22 and put itself a game away from victory.

“We knew that this was an important match for us,” Harrington said. “But at the same time when you play good teams like this it sometimes goes either way.”

In the fourth game, the Pats put the Falcons right on the edge.

Yet, West responded.

Pilgrim led by as much as 14-8, getting great serving from Nancy Alvarez and a pair of big hits from Megan St. Jacques.

Slowly, the Falcons clawed back. They tied the score at 16 on a hitting error by Pilgrim, then took the lead at 18-16 on a pair of kills from Alexis Mirabile.

The teams traded points back-and-forth until the score was tied at 22. During the biggest stretch of the match, West refused to let a ball drop, as it didn’t have much of an offensive showing over the final three points but it played standout defense.

The result was three consecutive Pilgrim hitting errors, giving West the 25-22 win, and a 2-2 tie in games.

“Being down 2-1, they showed some determination and that’s what it’s about,” said West head coach Tom Ferri. “When you’re playing the better teams than you’ve got to dig down.”

Riding high from the game four win, West jumped out to a 3-1 lead in game five thanks to a pair of kills from Mirabile. Pilgrim came back, tying the score at three, four, five, seven and eight before taking its first lead at 9-8, but the Falcons maintained their composure. A pair of hitting errors by Pilgrim gave West the lead back at 10-9, and an ace by Lauren Salisbury made it 11-9.

After a Pilgrim timeout, Mirabile won a point at the net, and a Pilgrim hitting error put West up 13-9. The Pats won a point back after that, but Mirabile finished the game and the match with a tip and a kill, setting off a celebration.

“I think they all stepped it up,” Ferri said. “Some of the kids that haven’t played much this year played tonight. That was good for them.”

Pilgrim got 11 kills from Colleen Conti, eight aces from Alvarez and nine kills from Deveny Dionne.

If the two teams end up tied in the standings, Pilgrim will win the tiebreaker thanks to its sweep earlier in the season against West. The tiebreaker is head-to-head games, and the Pats won that 5-3.

“We know that maybe that wasn’t our best effort tonight,” Harrington said. “We found a couple of areas that we can tweak and work on in practice, but all in all I think we played with confidence and with some intensity.”

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