Townies Collar Crusaders, 3-1, To Advance in Volleyball Playoffs

The East Providence High girls’ volleyball team used its dominating front line Thursday night to hold off stubborn Prout School of Wakefield, 3-1, in a quarterfinal round match of the Rhode Island Interscholastic League’s Division I state playoffs played in East Providence.

Sparked by Kim Thomas (12 kills and 4 blocks), Lindsee Allienello (7 kills, 6 digs and 3 service aces), Hannah Drolet (5 kills and 2 blocks) and Leah Drolet (4 kills and 3 blocks), the Townies outlasted the Crusaders by scores of 25-19, 26-24, 19-25 and 25-16 in a well-played and action-packed contest. East Providence (17-3 overall this season) now moves on the semifinal round of the divisional playoffs to be held Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Keaney Gymnasium on the campus of the University of Rhode Island in Kingston.

The Townies, who also received 27 assists from setter Alexandra Amaral, will face either Coventry High or LaSalle Academy of Providence in their semifinal showdown. The Oakers and Rams will battle Thursday at 5 in Coventry in a quarterfinal round pairing.

Jackie Tousignant (4 kills, 13 digs and 7 service aces), Jenna Walsh (6 service aces and 11 digs), Olivia Hirst (6 kills), Tori Jedson (28 assists) and Riley Martin (8 kills) paced Prout, which concluded its 2011 campaign with and overall 10-6 record.

EP’s towering and active frontline of Thomas, Allienello and the Drolet sisters proved too formidable for the Crusaders, who played well for most of the night, but who also made mistakes at critical junctures.

“Prout is a smart, well-coached and very knowledgeable team and they’re tough to beat,” Townie Coach Alex Butler said. “Our kids have been coming in the last few weeks and I thought we played well as a team. I’m proud of the kids.”

Prout Coach Dan Greene also lauded EP’s performance.

“East Providence attacked better than we did and played better defense than we did,” he said. “We had trouble digging any of their hard hits for the first half of the match, then we started to come up with them and the games were close. It could have gone either way.”

After the Townies won the first two games and dropped the third, the teams were basically even early in the final contest until EP broke it open with a 7-2 spurt fueled by Thomas (2 kills and a block), Leah Drolet (2 kills), Allienello (1 kill) and Alyssa Dias (4 service points) to take a 13-7 lead. The Townies slowly stretched their edge and ended the night on an Allienello kill.

The squads swapped scoring strings in the first game before East Providence parlayed kills by Allienello, Hannah Drolet and Thomas to spark an 8-1 burst and assumed a 21-16 lead. Leah Drolet concluded the tilt with a kill.

In the second game, EP zoomed to a 14-4 bulge before the Crusaders roared back with a 16-5 string to take a 20-19 lead. In that span, Elizabeth Sullivan contributed 2 kills and a block, Martin added two kills and Walsh served six unanswered points, including an ace.

Unfazed, EP rallied from deficits of 22-21 and 24-23 to notch the last three points of the contest on an Allienello kill and two errant returns.

Prout turned the tables in the third contest, snapping a 4-4 draw with a 6-1 run and later building leads of as great as nine points (22-13). Martin (4), Tousignant (4) and Hirst (3) combined for 11 kills in the game and Hirst brought it to a close with a kill.

Lucianna McLaughlin and Mary Monagle also played pivotal roles for East Providence as did Devyne Doran, Brook Sullivan, Rebecca Rogers and Alexa Levesque for Prout.

Butler said the Townies will have little time to savor this victory as they prepare for their semifinal encounter.

“I know both Coventry and LaSalle are both very good teams with a lot of firepower,” he said. “We’ll have to go back to practice, work hard and grind it out.”

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