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May 2008 |
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Skippers spiked by Townies |
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Wednesday, 02 April 2008 |
By ERIC RUEB
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EAST PROVIDENCE – The North Kingstown boys volleyball might be the most talented offensive team in the state.
If the Skippers pass like they did in their season opener against East Providence, it won’t matter.
North committed 60 unforced errors – 46 which led directly to East Providence points – its 25-23, 25-22, 20-25, 25-10 loss Monday night.
“The philosophy is you have to pass to swing. If you don’t pass, you don’t get the swings, you don’t get the options,” NK coach Joanne Fitts said. “If you make the perfect pass you can go right side, middle, or strong side. We have the hitters, there’s no doubt; we have firepower to take any team, but you have to make the passes.”
“If we work on the passing like coach Fitts was saying,” NK setter Brad Warburton said, “we have the offense to win a state championship.”
Any talk of state championships is completely premature at this point, especially when the Skippers struggled with basic passing. North did a fairly good job digging hard hit balls from East Providence’s middles or outsides, but serve receive gave them problems all game.
The Townies weren’t floating knucklers or ripping hard, topspin jump serves; North was out of position and looked overmatched every time East Providence stepped up to the line.
“I wasn’t that surprised,” Warburton said. “We have a few good passers, but we could be better. The kids were serving deep and we weren’t using our hands.”
Better passing would have given North wins in Games 1 and 2, where the Skippers came from behind both times and were within a shout of winning the games; they just couldn’t make the passes when it counted.
On the other hand, when it came time to make a pass, hit or block, East Providence got it done.
“They’ve got some very fine passers,” Fitts said.
The good for North was its offense was on par to the power NK traditionally brings.
Three Skippers registered at least 10 kills – Michael Ohanian and Dan Tisser had 13 apiece while sophomore Brett Stetson added 11.
“That’s good. We often would only have two hitters in doubles last year,” Fitts said. “JP (Adley), my other middle who will come along, he’ll have potential to come along and be in doubles and if we have four in doubles, we’ll be tough.”
“I like getting kills, it feels good,” Stetson said. “I’m trying to fill in for that Mike Fanning guy (an all-stater) who was pretty good last year, so I don’t know. I’ll see how it goes. I have some years to go, so I think I’ll be able to do it.”
North Kingstown also looked like it found a suitable replacement for setter Jeff Siatti, who was key in running the Skipper offense last season.
Warburton finished with 30 assists, four blocks and a kill while Sean Reisch had 12 assists and a block, but missed some time in Games 3 and 4 after busting his lip on the floor diving for a loose ball.
“Myself and Sean, we have to get ready to set on the varsity level,” Warburton said.
Too many times Tuesday Warburton and Reisch were hustling after errant passes or standing on target watching as a simple serve was completely botched.
There was a highlight in the third game, when the Skippers started passing and looked like an elite team, jumping out to a 17-7 lead before holding off East Providence 25-20, preventing the sweep.
Then came the 25-10 beating in the fourth game, killing momentum and sending the Skippers on a long bus ride home thinking about what they need to work on.
“The third game we did pretty good, we won the game and we had consistent passing right to the setter,” Stetson said. “That last game we were shanking balls and it wasn’t working good.”
It was the first step for the Skippers and they’re just hoping it will help the in the long volleyball season.
“We could be good. We have the firepower to win a state championship,” Warburton said. “The passing just needs to get better.”
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