Girls Volleyball: Cranston East is Swept in its Final Match

Cranston East was coming off an emotional victory over their rivals on their senior night, but ran into a Classical squad looking to improve its playoff seeding on their senior night. The Purple ran a powerful offense and limited their mistakes, which propelled them to their first sweep of the season.

Classical never trailed in game one, as they got consistent hitting from an array of players. Setter Aline Saysithidath did a great job spreading the ball around for the purple in game one, giving the Lady Bolts a multitude of different looks. Classical went to the middle early and often, utilizing Senior Frances Vasquez at her Middle Hitter position against a team that struggles defending the middle, in Cranston East.

The Purple lead 5-3 when Vasquez stepped up to the service line, and the Purple rattled off six consecutive points. Vasquez mixed in two aces as well, one of six in the game for the Purple, as the Lady Bolts struggled receiving serve the entire night.

Classical went on another six-point run later in the game. Ariel Burns and Audrey Chisholm carried the Purple late in the game, and Frances Vasquez finished it off on her serve. Classical takes game one 25-12.

Cranston East picked it up defensively to start game two and were able to create some offense off good passing. Lila Chey had back to back kills to give East an 8-7 lead. But their serve defense plagued them again late in the game, as they struggled getting the ball to setter Jincy Phann. Frances Vasquez had four kills in game two and the Purple went on an eight-point run to close it out, behind serving from Merande Sek, who had five aces in game two.

Vasquez carried the Purple in game three with five aces and three kills, as Classical simply outplayed East in game three. The Thunderbolts played a clean game without many errors, but they couldn't contend with the exceptional hitting from the Purple. Classical takes game three 25-18 and the match 3-0.

With the win, Classical secures the 5th seed with a 5-9 record in Division I North over Cranston West, as the regular season draws to a close.

"That was a big win for us. Our first win in three games this season and it gave us the fifth seed," Classical Coach John Polinick said after the match.

Cranston East had trouble receiving serve all night and fell to 2-12 on the season.

"We had a lot of players out in the first few weeks of the season. So by the time we got the team together it was the fourth week of the season. And we improved in the second half of the season and were more competitive so I'm happy about that," Cranston East Coach Ronald Lee said.