Short-Handed Townies Fall to Ponaganset, 3-1 [Video]

A bump on the road to the playoffs.

The East Providence High School girls’ volleyball team dropped into a tie for second place in the Division I-North standings after suffering a 3-1 loss Tuesday night to visiting Ponaganset Regional High School of Foster-Glocester.

Miranda Rayner (8), Erica Blais (7) and Sarah Gates (6) combined for 21 kills, and Gales (10) and Blais (7) also collaborated for 17 blocks, as the Chieftains outlasted the Townies by scores of 25-20, 25-22, 13-25, 25-22. The victory pushed Ponaganset (8-3) into a second-place tie with East Providence (8-3) and possibly also with LaSalle Academy of Providence, which took a 7-3 mark into its match Tuesday against Lincoln High.

Kim Thomas (12 kills and 2 blocks), Leah Drolet (11 kills and 2 blocks) and Alex Amaral (28 assists, 1 service ace and 7 digs) shone for the Townies, who were hit twice by personnel shortages. Outside hitter Mary Monagle took ill prior to the match and left the school for the night, while Hannah Drolet incurred a knee injury in the fourth game and was sidelined for the duration.

“But that’s no excuse,” said EP Coach Alex Butler. “We had too many hitting and too many service errors. The first two games, we basically handed them the games.”

Indeed, it was far from the Townies’ top performance of the season as the hosts committed a slew of unforced mistakes, including (unofficially) 13 service faults. East Providence hitters also experienced difficulty in keeping the ball in play on returns and volleys, further compounding their problems in contending with the tall and mobile Chieftains.

Ponaganset rallied from behind late to claim both the first and second contests and after squandering a five-point advantage in the fourth game, rebounded with a 9-4 burst to conclude the match. Trailing by an 18-16 margin after the Townies tallied seven straight points (six on Amaral serves and two kills from Thomas), the Chieftains finally overtook the hosts at 24-21 when Rayner and Blais recorded kills and EP misfired on a return.

An Adria Spivey kill kept East Providence alive, but the Townies fittingly finished the night with a service error.

“We’re stuck in a rut right now,” Butler said. “We haven’t been playing well for the last week or two and maybe this will wake us up. We’re not going anywhere playing like this.”

The first two games were see-saw battles, with neither squad capable of producing a lead of more than four points. In the opener, the Townies held a 16-13 advantage until Gates and Carissa Jackson both served three successive points to give the guests a 21-17 edge.

East Providence narrowed the gap late to 22-20, before kills from Blais and Rayner, coupled with an errant return, closed out the game.

In the second tilt, EP snapped a 14-14 deadlock with a four-point burst fueled by kills by Spivey and Hannah Drolet, but Ponaganset bounced back with a game-ending 11-3 string highlighted by three Blais kills and two from Gates (including the winner).

The Townies claimed their only triumph in the third game when a block by Leah Drolet and six straight service points by Alyssa Dias gave them a 15-6 cushion. Later, Lucianna McLaughlin drilled back-to-back service aces for EP, and Spivey ended the contest with a kill and two service aces.

East Providence will try to resume its winning ways Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Cranston East High School in a Division I-North tussle.

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