NORTH KINGSTOWN — The East Providence High School girls' volleyball team, undefeated and the top seed in the Division II championship playoffs, faced and, ultimately, passed its sternest test to date in the tournament semifinals as the Townies fended off an eager bunch of Barrington Eagles 3-2 Tuesday night, Nov. 7, at neutral site North Kingstown High.

Keira Mullen led the locals with 14 kills and 15 assists out of East Providence's 6-2 formation. Teagan Abatiello had one of her loudest nights of the fall, adding eight kills and three blocks. Ellie Vest also had eight kills while recording 11 digs.

"That was two hours of torture," said EPHS head coach Alex Butler quipped after the match. "I give a lot of credit to Barrington. I thought they played phenomenal tonight. They took us out of our rhythm, made us do things tonight that we haven't done all season. And a lot of the credit goes to them for making that happen. But like we have a lot of times throughout the season, we were able to come up with enough plays to pull out the win."

East Providence took the first two sets by the scores of 26-24 and 25-13 to apparently take a firm grip on the overall contest.

But fourth-seeded Barrington rallied to level the match and set up a deciding set for a berth in the final, winning the third narrowly 25-21 and the fourth 25-18 after taking early command by staking out a 6-0 lead.

The fifth set was fittingly close the Townies took a 6-3 edge, then were up 12-9 before the Eagles began to rally. Barrington first tied the score at 13 then it remained level at 14 before East Providence won the final two points, the last on an Eagle hitting error, to take set and match by a 16-14 score.

"I thought the first game went the way it would going in. I thought it would be tight, which it was, but we found a way to pull it out. I thought the second game we found our rhythm and played well," Butler said. "But then we made five service errors to start the third game, and I was like here we go. It's way we've played the entire season. I never felt comfortable being up 2-0 because we don't play consistent volleyball. We haven't played consistent for an entire match the whole year."

The No. 1 seed in the event, the Townies maintained their unblemished record to date, improving to 17-0 in league outings after going 15-0 during the regular season. EPHS defeated Cranston West 3-1 in its quarterfinal played late week for what was its 16th win without a loss in D-II outings.

Besides the Townies, Barrington entered the playoffs as the hottest team in the league. The Eagles had won six matches in a row, including a 3-2 victory over Middletown in their quarter played late last week as well. Barrington's 2023 campaign came to a close with a 13-4 record in all D-II matches.

The Eagles' recent run of form included a 3-2 win over eventual second-seeded Mt. Hope late in the regular season. That win by Barrington snapped what was then a 10-match D-II winning streak for the Huskies.

Mt. Hope met third-seeded Cumberland in Tuesday's other semi with the Clippers coming out on top in a 3-0 sweep.

The Townies and Cumberland will meet in the 2023 Division II championship match Saturday, Nov. 11, in Walsh Gymnasium on the Rhode Island College campus in Providence at 1:30 p.m.

EP defeated the Clippers 26-24, 25-19, 24-26, 25-12 in their only regular season outing on October 16 in Cumberland.

Asked what he needed to see from his team regardless of the opposition in the championship match, Butler said, "Consistent volleyball...It's no different than what I've asked of them the entire season. When we play consistent volleyball, we're a hard team to beat. When we ride the rollercoaster, we can get beat. It's that simple."