SPORTS

Skippers beat Hawks for volleyball crown

By ALEX SPONSELLER
Posted 6/24/21

The Bishop Hendricken boys volleyball team fell 3-1 (19-25/ 26-24/ 19-25/ 20-25) to North Kingstown in the Division I State Championship at Rhode Island College last week.

The Skippers were …

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SPORTS

Skippers beat Hawks for volleyball crown

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The Bishop Hendricken boys volleyball team fell 3-1 (19-25/ 26-24/ 19-25/ 20-25) to North Kingstown in the Division I State Championship at Rhode Island College last week.

The Skippers were undefeated heading into the matchup and would live up to the hype, answering the bell each time Hendricken pressured them throughout the match.

“We went in there hoping to execute the game plan that we thought would give us the best chance to win. The kids played great. The offense runs through (Sacred Heart commit) Dylan (McClung) and he had a very efficient match. We kept all the scores tight, took Set 2, but NK just has no weaknesses and brings a relentless attack. Every rally, they came back with an attack. We tried to keep the scores tight but just came up a little bit short,” said Hendricken coach Mike Harrington.

The Hawks battled hard in the third set as well and trailed just 20- 18 with a burst of momentum on their backs. However, the Skippers would regroup and hold on to take the 2-1 lead which would carry over into the third set as they cruised the rest of the way.

“That’s our strength. We feel that if we can keep the score tight and get both teams into the 20’s, then we have the x-factor with Dylan.

With him on the floor, we know that we don’t need the ball in the front row to score and to put pressure on teams. And we knew that the pressure was on North Kingstown. They were undefeated and the best team in the state. We wanted to pressure them, tilt things toward our side. We were right in it, I was really proud of the way our guys competed,” said Harrington. “North came in with a much more experienced group.

We were able to close the gap a little bit throughout the year but we just ran out of time.” Hendricken had a young group this season and also had a few players with no volleyball experience playing quality minutes. Harrington was impressed with how fast they learned and their teamfirst attitude throughout the spring.

“There was no selfishness, all of our guys had their roles. It was a nice season for our group that really came together well. Very few of the kids played volleyball before this season whether it be travel or high school, we were very raw coming into this season. We really tried to prioritize the things that we wanted to improve on in the shortened season and I was proud of the way the guys responded.

It was a good group,” said Harrington. Despite graduating their top player in McClung, Harrington is confident that the Hawks will be a contender once again in 2022.

“We’ll have two sophomores and a couple of juniors returning, so we will have a more experienced group next year than we had this year,” Harrington said.

“Losing Dylan, a kid that averaged more than 30 kills a night, it’s going to be a challenge on offense.

I like the makeup of this group though, we went 11-2 and 5-0 in five-set matches. This experience will be really helpful for the boys coming back.”

volleyball, Hawks, sports

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