'Bolts sweep Northmen to stay undefeated

The end result was another 3-0 victory for the Cranston East girls’ volleyball team, but it hardly coasted.

North Smithfield (5-4) came back towards the end of each set, but the ’Bolts defeated the Northmen 25-21, 25-20 and 25-22 behind clutch play from their three senior stars. McKenzie Richards recorded a game-high 16 kills, while Amanda Hay registered six aces and 13 digs. Samantha Levy had 11 digs and three aces of her own.

“We were definitely nervous about North Smithfield.” East head coach Meaghan McGonagle said. “They’ve got great players, they’ve got a great program. I was a little nervous going into this and they did not make it easy on us, that’s for sure.”

East (9-0) had difficulty pulling away from the Northmen in the first set before Hay came to the rescue. North Smithfield’s Lorenza O’Donnell delivered a kill to tie the game up at 13-13, but the ensuing service error gave the ’Bolts the lead again, 14-13.

Then, Hay swung the pendulum back to East. She ripped off three aces during the next five volleys, sending the ’Bolts to a 19-14 advantage.

“Amanda’s serve is excellent,” McGonagle said. “She gets a lot of kills for us. She’s a very effective server. It’s something about the float and the way it drops, it really keeps kids off their feet. She can move the ball around the court, so she doesn’t consistently go to one spot.”

Miscommunication plagued both sides down the stretch. Richards sent a kill attempt too long to cut East’s lead to 21-19, but the Northmen followed up with two consecutive errors to make it 23-19.

North Smithfield would pull within two again, 23-21, but East would close it out with some help from Hay yet again. She tipped a kill over the net to force match point, which was reached after a return try went off the side of Sophia Pasquarello’s hand on the next volley.

Richards started to find her rhythm during the second set. The Northmen took a 14-12 lead after Hay’s service error, but the ’Bolts responded with six unanswered points behind two kills from Richards. She was able to deceive the Northmen at the net with returns that looked to go straight, but really glanced off the side of her hand at an angle.

“McKenzie’s a great hitter,” McGonagle said. “We talk about how you can really kind of play in volleyball, when you hit to one spot, you can push the ball somewhere else. So we’ve been working on that in practice and we’ve been talking about that, and she was really able to do that.”

East was able to function better on the court during the second set, eliminating mental errors that allowed the ball to fall freely in the campfire. Instead, the passing was more fluid and most of the mistakes were ironed out. Victoria Bowry’s service ace gave East its largest lead of the set, 20-15.

The Northmen would climb back into the set again, 22-20, but a service error stemmed the momentum. East would take possession and never yield it again, taking advantage of two Northmen errors to claim the set.

The third set would be a little more relaxed for the ’Bolts, especially after two Richards kills in a row gave them an early 7-3 lead. Aces from Rossini Felix and Richards, combined with some more miscues on the North Smithfield side, would extend that advantage to 13-8.

“One of the hardest things in volleyball is to keep your momentum,” McGonagle said. “It’s a very mental game. So we try to work on not making errors, and if we can keep a clean game, we ask that the other team makes the errors. It was about consistency [Thursday] and playing and making sure we weren’t making the mistakes and forcing the other team into errors.”

East would continue to answer the bell when North Smithfield tried to close the gap. An ace from Alyssa Murray slashed the deficit to 13-11, but a service error and two booming serves from Levy made it a five-point game once more.

North Smithfield came within one, 16-15, before the ’Bolts effectively put the game away with five straight points. The Northmen erred on three plays in a row, either sending returns too long or not far enough, to help East reestablish its cushion.

While the Northmen had some spurts of strong play, they would be their own worst enemy down the stretch. They nearly forced a fourth set, as they did in their first matchup with East earlier in the year, but they could not return the final two volleys. East secured the sweep and kept its unblemished record alive.

The last perfect team in Division II hosted Central Falls (4-6) on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., but results were unavailable at press time. The Warriors have been on a torrid pace as of late, winning their last four matches before a four-set loss to Tolman on Friday.

The ’Bolts defeated Central Falls, 3-1, in their season opener on Sept. 8.

“I’ve got great players,” McGonagle said. “I’ve got a squad of 12 and six of them are seniors. I’ve been with a lot of them for four years now. They’ve wanted it. They’ve wanted it for four years. We’ve prepared aggressively, gotten better each of those years, and it’s really them. They’re staying focused, they want this and they’re pushing for it.”