Rhode Island High School
Girls' Volleyball
Class A
1997

              W  L  GBL
             -- -- ----
E Providence 15  1   .0
Woonsocket   13  3  2.0
Lincoln       9  6  5.5
MtSt Charles  9  7  6.0
N Smithfield  8  8  7.0
-----------------------
Ponagansett   6  9  8.5
Burrillville  4 12 11.0
Classical     4 12 11.0
Cumberland    3 13 12.0

              W  L  GBL
             -- -- ----
N Kingstown  14  0   .0
Toll Gate    12  2  2.0
Pilgrim      10  4  4.0
Mt Hope       8  6  6.0
S Kingstown   6  8  8.0
-----------------------
Coventry      4 10 10.0
Warwick       1 13 13.0
Middletown    1 13 13.0

Player of the Year; May 31, 1997 (Pre-Playoffs)
Katie Craft - North Kingstown. The "killer". The senior 
led North Kingstown to an undefeated season.
Week #9; May 24, 1997
Allie Bentley - North Kingstown. "Allie had the game
of her life" according to coach Joanne Fitts as NK beat Toll Gate 3-1
to complete an undefeated season, including nine "3-0 sweep" 
victories. Allie had only one mis-hit in 35 attempts.
Week #8; May 17, 1997
Jill McEwen - North Kingstown. Jill, a junior, had
38 assists (isn't that a lot? can there be multiple assists on a 
score?) as North Kingstown beat Middletown and remained undefeated.
Week #7; May 10, 1997
Tara Tremmel - East Providence. Tara had a great game 
against Ponagansett as EP won their 12th without a loss, 15-4, 15-11,
and 15-2. Tara had 15 service points and 3 blocks.
Week #6; May 03, 1997
Meghan Moore - South Kingstown. Meghan had 32 assists 
in SK's win over Coventry as SK tries to stay above .500.
Week #5; Apr 26, 1997
Amanda Yanski - Mount St. Charles. Amanda, a senior 
had 20 kills as MSC defeated Lincoln, 3-2.
Week #4; Apr 19, 1997
Katie Craft - North Kingstown. A senior, Katie had 22 
kills to push Toll Gate out of the #1 spot in the South.
Week #3; Apr 12, 1997
Jess Arrigha - East Providence. Jess helped her team 
remain undefeated with wins over Ponaganset and Mount Saint Charles.
Week #2; Apr 05, 1997
Beth Cleary - North Smithfield. Beth had 20 service 
points in win over Burrillville. 
Week #1; Mar 29, 1997
Lori Silberman - Toll Gate. Lori was instrumental in 
getting her team off to a running start with two straight wins.

May 27, 1997 (Game #P1): North Smithfield vs Mt. Hope at Mt. Hope

   North Smithfield       6  15  16  15  xx  --  3
   Mt. Hope              15  13  14   0  xx  --  1

   NS: Paula Kelly - 18 kills, 17 digs, 5 blocks, 
   Erica Johnson - 6 kills, 10 aces, 19 digs.
   MH:

May 27, 1997 (Game #P2): South Kingstown vs Mount Saint Charles at MSC

   South Kingstown        2   2   9  xx  xx  --  0
   MSC                   15  15  15  xx  xx  --  3

   SK: 
   MS: Kaylla Egan - 3 kills.

May 29, 1997 (Game #Q1): Pilgrim vs Woonsocket at Woonsocket

   Pilgrim               15  10   3  14  xx  --  1
   Woonsocket            12  15  15  16  xx  --  3

   PI: Meghan McGonagle - 21 kills.
   WO: Bethany Gobeille - 10 kills.

May 29, 1997 (Game #Q2): Lincoln vs Toll Gate at Toll Gate

   Lincoln                7  15   6   8  xx  --  1
   Toll Gate             15   9  15  15  xx  --  3

   LI: Roxanne Plamondon - 17 blocks, 14/16 serving.
   TG: Debbie Bihday - 22 kills, Meghan Daniel - 26 assists.

May 29, 1997 (Game #Q3): Mount Saint Charles vs North
Kingstown at North Kingstown

   MSC                   11  15   9  15   4  --  2
   North Kingstown       15  13  15   5  15  --  3

   MS:
   NK: Katie Craft - 24 kills, Linda Franco - 16 kills,
   Jill McEwen 72 assists.

May 30, 1997 (Game #Q4): North Smithfield vs East Providence
at East Providence

   North Smithfield       2  11   7  xx  xx  --  0
   East Providence       15  15  15  xx  xx  --  3

   NS:
   EP: Jessica Arrighi - 11 kills, Jess Robertson - 5 kills, 8 blocks.

Jun 05, 1997 (Game #S1 & #S2): East Providence vs Toll
Gate,
Woonsocket vs North Kingstown at CCRI

   East Providence       10  15   6  10  xx  --  1
   Toll Gate             15  12  15  15  xx  --  3

   Woonsocket             4   3   8  xx  xx  --  0
   North Kingstown       15  15  15  xx  xx  --  3

WARWICK - Forget North Kingstown's close call with
Mount Saint Charles last week.
  The Mounties took the Skippers to five games, but
that wasn't the same North team that was on the CCRI
fieldhouse floor last night.
  North Kingstown played near-perfect volleyball in
overwhelming Northern Division runner-up Woonsocket
before a crowd of more than 800 last night in the
semifinals of the Journal-Bulletin-Legg Mason state
tournament.
  The Skippers will meet archrival Toll Gate in the
title match, Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. The Titans needed
two hours to put away East Providence in four games
in last night's opening match.
  North Kingstown, shooting for its third straight
crown, was hitting on all six cylinders with Katie
Craft, Allie Bentley and Diane Dynon putting down
the perfect sets of Lill McEwen, while Linda
Ferencko and Alissa Crevier were making the good
passes or diving digs.
  The high hopes of the Villa Novans, the only team to
beat East Providence this season, were quickly
crushed. There was little they could do to stop the
Skippers in a 15-4, 15-3, 15-8 sweep.
  "We were too laid-back, maybe a little cocky against
Mount St. Charles," said Kraft, who 16 kills and
several stuff blocks. "We talked about that match
all week. Tonight we stepped our game up. We were
just confident."
  The Skippers didn't think Woonsocket would be easy.
  "I was nervous all day," Kraft said, "but once I saw
we were at the top of our game, I knew we weren't
going down."
  Points were tough to come by in the Toll Gate win,
especially in the match-clincher, when neither team
could score more than one point at a time until the
Titans rattled off seven points.
  "It was a long hard match that could have gone
either way," Toll Gate coach Jim Roch said.
  The Titans moved into championship game after
Caroline Boggs's serve glanced off the hands of an
EP player, Debbie Bihday blocked a shot in the
middle, and Boggs smashed match-point off Townies
star Jessica Arrighi.
  Serving hurt the Northern Division-champion Townies,
especialy in the first and fourth games, when they
rammed 12 service attempts into the net or out of
bounds. Trailing 10-11 in the opener, East
Providence lost two consecutive possessions on bad
serves, and the Titans made them pay when hits from
Lori Silberman (14 kills, 4 blocks), Meggan Daniel
(6 kills, 16 assists) and Bihday (12 kills, 19
assists) accounted for the game's final four points.
  "We were a little tight, and Toll Gate rose to the
occasion," East Providence coach Luis Carvalho said.
"I thought we had them in the first game, but four
unforced errors let them back in. They took the
momentum, and even though they lost the second game,
never gave it up."
  East Providence tied the match with a 15-12 win in
Game Two, thanks to some hitting from Arrighi and
Tara Tremmel. The Titans closed to 12-14, but
Jessica Robertson won it for EP, reaching for a
game-winning block.
  Points in Game Three were tough to get too. The
Titans got the most, pulling off the match's only
five-point run on Bihday's serving, a Silberman
kill, and a double-block by Holly Hummel and
Silberman. That gave TG a 6-3 lead. Roch thought the
run was the turning point of the match.
  "Debbie (Bihday) has been our top server all
season," he said, "and we get a lot of free balls
when she is on the line."
  By BUD BARKER Journal-Bulletin Sports Writer

Jun 10, 1997 (Game #F1): Toll Gate vs North Kingstown at CCRI

   Toll Gate             15  15  15  xx  xx  --  3
   North Kingstown       13  13  13  xx  xx  --  0

WARWICK - This was the year that somebody was
supposed to beat two-time defending state champ
North Kingstown. Toll Gate hadn't forgotten.
  The Titans shocked North in three gruelling 15-13
games last night in the CCRI Knight campus
fieldhouse, and wrestled away the state volleyball
championship as crowd of more than 800, half
delirious, half stunned, watched from the edge of
their seats.
  If anybody was going to beat the Skippers, who came
into the season with just two veteran players in
their starting lineup, it was Toll Gate. The Titans
had taken the unbeaten Class A champions to five
games in their first meeting of the year and lost in
four games on the final night of the regular season.
  'No Fear' was the Titans' battle cry last night.
  "We weren't intimidated, weren't scared, like the
first two times we played them," said Debbie Bihday,
the Journal-Bulletin Volleyball Championships MVP.
"That was definitely difference tonight. We were
afraid before and beat ourselves. Tonight, North got
down, and we stayed on top of them."
  The victory snapped a 43-match winning streak for
the Skippers who had struggled to beat Mount St.
Charles in the quarterfinals, but then swept
Woonsocket in the semis. The last time a team swept
a Joanne Fitts-coached North Kingstown team? Toll
Gate in 1993.
  Although North was swept again last night, it went
out like champions, scraping for every point. But
last night belonged to Toll Gate.
  From the time they strutted to a 10-2 lead in the
opener until Bihday won the third game with a
blistering outside kill, the Titans got to most
every ball that came over the net.
  "They outdid us on defense," said Fitts, whose teams
have won four of the last six state titles, "Toll
Gate didn't let anything hit the floor. We had
opportunies, but we had problems in the back row,
and if you don't play the back row, you are not
going to beat a team like Toll Gate."
  Down 13-5 in the first game, North stormed back to
13-11 with a middle kill by Diane Dynon and a Linda
Ferencko block, then closed to 14-13 when Allie
Bentley drilled an shot off a Toll Gate player.
  The Titans never backed down, though, and won the
opener when the Skippers hit the ball into the net.
  Toll Gate did what it had to do, Lori Silberman
said. When things got tough, they didn't come
unglued.
  "We had to stay focused, and stay away from unforced
errors," Silberman said. "When we get North down,
they have trouble coming back up."
  The second game was a see-saw affair, tied four
times. Silberman's blast off North Kingstown star
Katie Craft broke a 12-12 tie, and Bihday made it
game-point with one of her 14 kills.
  The Titans' defense, with Meggan Daniel and Sarah
Cavanagh making the digs, held North scoreless on
three of its next four possessions until Bihday,
playing the match of her career, put the game away
with another shot from the outside.
  Toll Gate's plan was to cut down the Skipper's
awesome middle attack. It worked to near-perfection.
  "We practiced hard on defense and were ready for
everything that North Kingstown was going to throw
at us," Titans coach Jim Roch said. "And the girls
worked to perfection."
  Under the threat of relinquishing their title, the
Skippers fought back into four ties in the third
game and took an 11-9 lead they failed to hold.
  A Silberman kill gave Toll Gate possession and the
Titans scored the next four points for a 13-11
advantage.
  The Skippers again rallied into a 13-13 tie, but
Silberman and Bihday wouldn't let the game get away.
  Silberman delivered a serve the Skippers couldn't
return, and Daniel setup Bihday for her final high
school shot, a crosscourt spike that bounced into
the big crowd.
  By BUD BARKER Journal-Bulletin Sports Writer

Copyright © 1997, South County Fun