Soaring into the Semifinals

Pilgrim rolls over Toll Gate

Kevin Pomeroy, Sports Editor
Posted 11/6/14

Both the Pilgrim and Toll Gate girls’ volleyball team have come a long way this year, from the beginning of the season until Tuesday’s Division II quarterfinal showdown.

It’s the Pats who …

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Soaring into the Semifinals

Pilgrim rolls over Toll Gate

Posted

Both the Pilgrim and Toll Gate girls’ volleyball team have come a long way this year, from the beginning of the season until Tuesday’s Division II quarterfinal showdown.

It’s the Pats who are going a little bit further.

After holding on for a 25-23 victory in the first game, second-seeded Pilgrim played some of its best volleyball of the season in games two and three on its way to 25-14 and 25-10 victories, giving it a 3-0 sweep over the rival Titans and a spot in the D-II semifinals.

The Pats will be playing the semifinal round for the first time since 2001.

“It’s crazy,” said senior Colleen Conti, who led Pilgrim with eight kills. “I’m so excited to play at URI.”

Indeed, URI is the next stop for Pilgrim, as it will take on No. 3 Cranston East today at Keaney Gymnasium at 6 p.m. with a spot in the championship on the line. Pilgrim hasn’t reached a title match this century.

“I feel like we played really strong throughout the season, and I’m just excited to go to URI,” said senior setter Nancy Alvarez, who finished with 19 assists and seven digs.

As for the sixth-seeded Titans, their run comes to a close after an amazing mid-season turnaround. Toll Gate started out the season 0-6, finished 6-10, won a playoff match and reached the quarterfinals for the first time since 2009.

“It could have been very easy for my two seniors (Jamie Hopgood and Brooke Casacalenda) to just fold and not really care about the season,” said Toll Gate head coach Andrew Bevilacqua. “But every day they came in and worked hard and set the tone at practice for the rest of the girls. They’ve got to be proud of themselves.”

The first game turned out to be the key to Tuesday’s match. Pilgrim jumped out to a 7-1 lead and never actually trailed, but the Titans managed to come all the way back and make it competitive.

They got as close as 21-20 after three consecutive Pats’ errors, and then again as close as 24-23, but a service error on the final point did the Titans in.

That was a big story in the match for Toll Gate, which committee double-digit service errors. For the season, when it’s done that, it’s usually been a recipe for a loss.

“That was the story all year,” Bevilacqua said. “We were double-digit missed serves all year. The matches that we weren’t double digits we had a good shot of winning and we played really well.”

The game one win, as close as it was, was a relief for the Pats, and it set the stage for their domination over the final two games.

“It’s a little stress off,” Alvarez said. “Usually when we win the first game, sometimes we slack off during the second game and it’s not good. We didn’t do that today.”

No, Pilgrim came out on fire in game two and maintained that rhythm the rest of the match. It took a 4-0 lead with Deveny Dionne serving, then went up 6-1 on a Conti kill. Later, an ace from Conti made it 11-5, and five more points in a row made it 16-5 and gave the Pats plenty of breathing room.

Toll Gate got as close as 21-13, forcing a Pilgrim timeout, but the game was never in jeopardy. Conti had a kill to make it 24-14 and Megan St. Jacques hit a ball that fell in the middle of the court of the final point of the game, putting the Pats up 2-0.

“We went for everything, passes were great, the hits were amazing,” Alvarez said.

Down 2-0, Toll Gate wasn’t dead yet, as it had rallied from a 2-0 deficit to force a fifth game against Pilgrim earlier in the season.

This time, there was no rally. Pilgrim went up 2-0, then 8-3, eventually forcing a Titans’ timeout at 11-4.

The game was never close. The score quickly ballooned to 18-5, and though Toll Gate won a few points towards the end, Alvarez had a strong serve, Conti had a kill and St. Jacques again finished the game off with a hit to the middle of the floor.

Pilgrim was free to finally celebrate a spot in the semifinals for the first time in a very long time.

“We just tried to minimize our mistakes, and I think our ball control was good,” said Pilgrim head coach Kelly Harrington. We served well, and those are two key components to a volleyball game. We kind of capitalized on some errors that Toll Gate made.”

The Pats should feel pretty good heading into the match against East, too. The Thunderbolts beat Pilgrim 3-1 early in the season but in the most recent match-up, the Pats prevailed 3-1 on Oct. 16.

If they do that again, they’ll be playing in the Division II title match on Sunday at 2 p.m. Cranston West and East Greenwich are playing in the other semifinal.

“We split with Cranston East in the season, and we have a well-balanced team right now playing at a pretty high level,” Harrington said. “We are excited, and we’ve been working hard all year. We know what we need to do. Now we just need to go in and get the job done.”

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