Titans drop first two in D-II slate

Posted 9/11/14

The Toll Gate volleyball team has been welcomed to Division II by a pair of teams that made the playoffs last year and should be in the hunt again this year.

Not surprisingly, it hasn’t been …

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Titans drop first two in D-II slate

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The Toll Gate volleyball team has been welcomed to Division II by a pair of teams that made the playoffs last year and should be in the hunt again this year.

Not surprisingly, it hasn’t been the warmest welcome.

After dropping its season opener 3-1 to Cranston East last week, the Titans fell 3-0 to East Greenwich on Tuesday night. They’ve shown flashes of being the contending team that they want to be after a move from Division I, but haven’t found the results yet.

“We show glimpses,” said Toll Gate head coach Andrew Bevilacqua. “We took a game from Cranston East last week, another game was really close. We held our own tonight. I tell them ‘We’re right there. It’s just getting over that hump.’ Once we do that I think it’ll be a different story.”

Bevilacqua and the Titans knew the move to Division II wouldn’t magically make them a contender, and their first two matches were pretty good reminders. Cranston East, which made the playoffs last year with an 8-10 record, outlasted the Titans for a 3-1 win in Thursday’s season opener. The ’Bolts won game one 25-17 before pull out a 27-25 win in game two. Toll Gate came back to win game three 28-26 but East surged in game four, winning 25-12 to seal the victory.

On Tuesday, Toll Gate hosted East Greenwich, a semifinalist last year. The Titans hung around in the early part of the first two games but couldn’t keep up. East Greenwich won 25-18, 25-16 and 25-8.

“It’s early,” Bevilacqua said. “We’re two matches into the season and I didn’t expect to win them all. We’re aiming for middle of the pack, make the playoffs and then we make our run. As we see these teams again, everybody’s going to be better, but so are we.”

The Titans led 3-2 in game one of Tuesday’s match, but saw the Avengers string together five straight points to take a lead they never lost. Toll Gate trailed by as many as six but got within three at 19-16 on consecutive aces by Jamie Hopgood, which forced an East Greenwich timeout.

Out of the break, the Titans committed errors on consecutive points, and the Avengers were quickly back in full control. East Greenwich won the final four points of the game.

Errors in key moments have been a common theme thus far for the Titans.

“When they score three or four points, we get the serve and we miss a serve, the momentum just continues for them,” Bevilacqua said. “And I feel like every time we’ve gone on a run of three of four points, we step back and serve the ball into the net or serve it out. We’ve just got to make that serve, put it in the middle of the court and keep that momentum.”

The Titans again had an early lead in game two, but East Greenwich delivered another quick run, winning six straight points to turn a 4-2 deficit into an 8-4 lead. The Titans got within three on a Courtney Marsh kill and later cut the lead to two after a Taylor Payton dig capped a three-point run. But it remained an uphill battle, and the Titans never got closer than two. East Greenwich pulled away again with a five-point run and won by nine.

In game three, the Titans never led as the Avengers rode Phoebe Wong’s serving to a 7-0 lead and cruised from there. The Avengers are now 2-0.

Toll Gate will focus on continued improvement while it looks for its first victory. The Titans know what they need to work on.

“Our main problem is missed serves,” Bevilacqua said. “We missed 14 the other night, we missed another 14 or 15 tonight. We’re just giving away free points. That’s got to be our main focal point going forward.”

The Titans will match up with another 2013 playoff team tonight when they visit cross-town rival Pilgrim at 6:30 p.m.

“We’ve got another playoff team Thursday night at Pilgrim,” Bevilacqua said. “The girls are going to be pumped up for it.”

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