Rogers comeback stuns St. Raphael
Saints come up two points short of winning first title
PROVIDENCE – The No. 1 St. Raphael girls volleyball team was so close to producing the program’s first Division III title Saturday afternoon against No. 2 Rogers.
The Saints needed just three points in the third game to secure a sweep of the pesky Vikings.
One game later, Korto Jackson helped the Saints move within four points of the title.
And, after a magnificent comeback in the fifth game, the Saints needed just two points with sophomore setter Madison Nault at the service line at the end to win a marathon Division III title contest.
In each game, however, Shannon Ward, freshman opposite hitter Sophie Breitenbach and the Vikings simply made more match-winning plays. The Vikings won their second D-III title in the last three season with an 1825, 13-25, 25-21, 25-22, 1614 victory at Rhode Island College’s Murray Center.
“In the first two sets we pretty much played untouchable,” St. Raphael second-year coach Eric Silveira said. “We maybe only missed one or two serves in the first two sets. In the third set we started to get a little comfortable and our serve-receive started to break down. What I was happy with was the fight in the last three sets.
“Regardless of the scores or the result that happened, Im extremely proud of my girls fighting 100 percent until the end.”
St. Raphael (16-2 Division III) looked like it was going to end the campaign on the wrong end of a blowout score in the fifth game. After the Vikings grabbed a 3-2 lead on a Breitenbach block, Ward retreated to the service line and delivered three aces to put the Vikings up 8-3. Breitenbach followed with a service run to put the Vikings up 14-7.
Down to their final point of the season, the Saints staged a comeback that put them on the precipice of the title. With Nault at the service line, Korto Jackson and Sydney Charette delivered kills to tie the game at 14. Rogers answered with a kill from Marianna May and an SRA hitting error on match point delivered the Vikings the title.
“I couldn’t be happier with our effort and fighting for every single point. That’s all I can ask for,” Silveira said. “This is my second year coaching. The first year we made it to the semifinals, this year we made it to the finals. We didn’t get the result that we wanted last year and this year – hopefully the third time’s the charm. I couldn’t be prouder of my girls tonight.”
Rogers (16-2 Division III) claimed its second Division III title in the last three seasons. Just like Saturday’s title, the victory in 2015 also went five games against a Pawtucket-based squad, as the Vikings defeated Shea at East Providence High.
Rogers, behind the serving of Ward, jumped out to a 10-7 advantage in the opening game, but then the Saints took complete control of the contest with Nault at the controls of the offense. Kills from middle hitter Victoria Adegboyega were a key part of a 6-0 run to give SRA a lead it would never relinquish. Libero Tatiana Vicente was at the line during the run.
Nault served the Saints to an 8-3 advantage in the second game, and the Saints continued to pull away. Rogers’ hitting errors combined with solid play from Jackson and Charette produced an emphatic 12-point win.
“It wasn’t anything we were doing offensively or defensively, we served impeccably,” Silveira said of the first two games. “We only missed one or two serves and our serve-receive was untouchable.”
The Saints continued to serve well in the third game, the problem was they didn’t have all that many opportunities early in the game because Ward served seven straight points to give the Vikings a 15-11 lead. SRA battled back to tie the game at 21, but Rogers won the game’s final four points to remain alive for the title.
SRA led the fourth game 3-2, but then its serve-receive simply disintegrated with the talented Ward firing float serves to all corners of the court. Rogers went on a 9-0 run to take an 11-3 lead and then Breitenbach extended the advantage to 1910.
“We had a game plan for the most part that we exe- cuted, it was just that our serve-receive was a little off the last three sets that gave them a long service run,” Silveira said. “You only get two timeouts, so I can’t use 100 timeouts to slow them down. [Ward and Breiterbach] definitely put pressure on us in serve-receive. We tried to keep the ball away from them as much as pos- sible.”
Just as she had done a few times already in the match, Nault bailed her team out with a long service run. The sophomore led her team on a 9-0 run to tie the game. SRA went up 22-20 after a Victoria Jacques block, but then Breitenbach launched a pair of aces on the game’s final two points to set the stage for a dramatic fifth game.
With Nault, Vicente and Adegboyega back to form the core of next season’s team, Silveira hopes the Saints can experience the joy of winning a title like he did with Tolman two times earlier this decade.
“We have a great group of girls that set the goal to get here and they got here,” Sil- veira said. “They wanted to win it, unfortunate with the result. They achieved one of their goals. Last year definitely fueled this year and I think this year will fuel them even more because they have so many years ahead of them. They’re definitely going to use this as fire.”