Rebels Take It To Skippers

NORTH KINGSTOWN — The North Kingstown High boys’ volleyball team fell behind 20-10 to start the first game, and were never able to recover en route to a 3-0 loss to South Kingstown High Wednesday at A. Lenore Cranston Gymnasium.

“We came out flat and we never got a rhythm going and South had their rhythm going consistently,” North Kingstown head coach Joanne Fitts. “We need to put in a better performance than that. We need to put in the best performance that we can.”

Once the Rebels took the first game they kept the pressure on all night, topping the Skippers 25-18 and 25-15 in the second and third games, respectively.

The Rebels were on point with their multifaceted attack, sending multiple hitters to the net to throw off the Skippers’ block. 

“We were passing to the target and running multiple attacks and that’s tough to play defense against from any team,” South Kingstown head coach Jackie Fagan said. “We worked a lot on passing this week, and for us it’s going to make or break our season. If we pass well I think we’re pretty hard to beat.”

On occasions, South Kingstown would feint on kills up the middle, allowing senior Ben Gross to set up the Rebels’ outside hitters for open kills on the edges.  Other times the Rebels would set the ball for their middle hitters, thus keeping the Skippers off balance all game.

“The passing that we’ve been working on really showed in this game, and when you have good passing you can do anything on offense,” Gross said.  “We have so many weapons where we’re able to spread the ball around and attack at all places.”

Gross finished the match with 38 assists, with senior Nate Finnegan being the primary benefactor of Gross’ helpers with 13 kills to go with 10 digs. Senior James Pilkington chipped in with five kills, while senior Zach Gallup had a well-rounded game with seven blocks, seven digs and six kills.

Gross also had five kills of his own, an unusually high number for the senior setter who is more setting up plays than finishing them.

“It’s always fun when I get to hit and get my hits in because it doesn’t happen often, but when it does I enjoy it,” Gross said.

On the Skippers’ side they could not get anything going all night, as they were unable to string more than a few points together at a time. 

“We have to continue working on our speed, rhythm, we have to get more consistent setting, passing, we just have to be more consistent,” Fitts said.

Their performance came as quite a surprise to Fitts, who expected them to perform much better after having a good week of practice.

“The last three four days of practice we’ve had some real good up tempo playing. We just couldn’t put it on the game floor tonight,” Fitts said. “I’m used to telling teams that I wished they would practice the way they play. Well, with this group I wish they would play the way they practice.”

North Kingstown (3-5 Division-I, 4-5 overall) will look to recapture its timing when they host Coventry High Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Cranston Gymnasium.

“You just got to put it away, you have to stay in the present,” Fitts said.  “This one’s gone. The season repeats starting Friday. It’s a new season Friday, so we’re going to go from there.”

South Kingstown (7-1 D-I, 8-1 overall), no even with Mount St. Charles for second place and one game behind Bishop Hendricken, will look to keep pace Wednesday when they travel to take on Coventry Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

“There’s always something to work on,” Fagan said.  “We had a bad serving night the other night, so we worked on serving and passing, and we passed and served better tonight, which is a good sign.”