EPHS boys’ volleyball team seeks some redemption during 2019 season

Townies eye longer playoff stay this spring

By Mathew Galvao
Posted 4/11/19

EAST PROVIDENCE — The East Providence High School boys’ volleyball team kicked off its 2019 season last week after coming off a campaign that ended disappointingly with the Townies losing to …

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EPHS boys’ volleyball team seeks some redemption during 2019 season

Townies eye longer playoff stay this spring

Posted

EAST PROVIDENCE — The East Providence High School boys’ volleyball team kicked off its 2019 season last week after coming off a campaign that ended disappointingly with the Townies losing to top-seeded and eventual state champion Mount St. Charles in the Division I playoff semifinals in five games.

“We had a lot of seniors on that team who worked really hard for the four years that they were here. We have a couple guys who were juniors then and are seniors now and we’re just trying to get them to play to that level,” said East Providence head coach Dan Cabral. “It adds a little fire in your belly that burns and wants that to not happen again. It’s all stuff that we can learn from.”

The Townies got a rematch against the same Mount St. Charles team that knocked them out a year ago in their 2019 season starter last week. East Providence, however, fell in four games at the hands of the Mounties dropping their home opener (25-10, 30-28, 25-14, 25-18).

“We have some basic stuff we have to work on. We showed some fight and will not to quit,” Cabral explained. “I was proud of the way they played. We could clean up some things here and there cleaning up our side of the floor and just doing the little things to help us go forward.”

The locals finished last season with a record of 8-8 in regular season play and were seeded fifth in the D-I tourney. They defeated fourth-seeded Chariho in the quarterfinals before dropping the semifinal match to Mount St. Charles. The aim for this year’s team remains the same as it always in, and that is to make the playoffs and ultimately compete for a championship.

“Our goal is to always make the playoffs and be a competitive team,” said Cabral. “Overall, if we can make the playoffs and fight like we did last year and just be a tough out.”

The roster for the Townies is constructed with 15 upperclassmen six of which are seniors. Those juniors and seniors will be pivotal to the success of this team this season and their hopes of getting to a championship, but the younger players will also get their chances to chip in as well.

“Our lineup is a mixture of juniors and seniors so right now it’s going to be who’s playing well at the time,” Cabral explained. “Everybody is going to get an opportunity to get on the floor and produce everyday in practice and we’ll go from there.”

Seniors Alex Evans, Tiago Fernandes, Tyler Martins will all be key players for the Townies this season as they’ll be asked to help lead this group throughout the season especially with their leadership. Juniors Eric Long, Dan Andrade, Yanis Benadouda and Ryan Moniz will also play key roles for the Townies as well.

Being early in the season, there is still some things that the Townies still need to clean up from their game. Passing, serving and polishing up the basics are what coach Cabral and his staff feel this team still needs to work on through this first part of the season.

“We’ve got a lot of things that we’ve gotta clean up, it’s early but we’ve gotta do everything in practice. We just have to do the basics and try to minimize our mistakes and keep the ball in the other teams court and go fro there, Cabral explained.

The Townies grit and determination are things that coach Cabral takes a lot of pride in with this group and are intangibles that can make this team really tough to play against night in and night out in a tough division-I field.

“Our resolve. We’re a scrappy team. We try to keep balls in the air in practice and not let balls hit the ground,” said Cabral on what he expects to be the strengths of this year’s Townies.

— East Providence Post and eastbayri.com contributing photographer Tyler Maxwell shot the accompanying gallery of photos.

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.