No. 2 Coventry ousts West

The Cranston Herald ·

The Cranston West girls’ volleyball team was ousted in the Division I quarterfinals on Thursday night, falling at No. 2 Coventry, 3-0.

After the Oakers handed the Falcons a 25-13 defeat in the first set, the Falcons battled back, taking an 18-16 edge in the second set before Coventry finished strong for a 25-20 victory. The home team would then finish off the sweep, cruising to a 25-7 win in the third and final set to clinch a semifinal berth.

“We had to limit our unforced errors against a team like that,” West head coach Thomas Ferri said. “[Coventry] doesn’t make many mistakes. In all aspects of the game, they’re just very solid.”

The Oakers were overpowering from the opening serve, starting the match with an 8-1 run that triggered Ferri to call a timeout.

West settled in a bit after that, but it couldn’t make up ground.

Keara Pedroso’s ace trimmed the Falcons’ deficit to 13-6, and back-to-back kills from Emilia Vaziri cut Coventry’s lead to 17-10.

Coventry’s Gianna Boiani would answer with a kill of her own to halt West’s momentum, though, as Coventry finished the set strong to take a 1-0 lead.

Blocks early in the second set from Vaziri and Brinley Foley helped the upset-minded Falcons keep pace.

And the pair of teams went back-and-forth on the scoreboard until two Coventry hitting errors gave the Falcons an 18-16 advantage.

However, that lead was short-lived.

The big hitting of Lydia Clifford sparked a 6-0 run for Coventry, giving it a 22-18 lead and again forcing Ferri to call a timeout to talk things over.

The Oakers continued their strong play out of the timeout, fighting off the Falcons to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.

The third set was all Coventry.

Three aces early from Christina Equitani and a pair of kills from Clifford helped the Oakers build a 10-3 cushion.

Pedroso tried to spark a comeback with a kill late, but Coventry was just too strong down the stretch.

Despite the quarterfinal exit, Ferri deemed his team’s first season in Division I a successful one. The Falcons posted a 9-9 league record this fall, good enough to earn the No. 7 seed for the playoffs.

“I thought they played well,” Ferri said when asked about his team’s transition to D-I. “It’s always difficult playing a team like this. I think [Coventry] has won the championship four out of the last five years. We knew that we’d be in for a tough test. We just made too many unforced errors.”