EAST PROVIDENCE — A bit closer than the final score would lead one to believe, the top-seeded and undefeated East Providence High School girls' volleyball team swept past Cranston West, 3-0, in their Division II quarterfinal round contest Thursday night, Nov. 2, on Carvalho Court.

The Townies improved to 16-0 with their 25-11, 25-14, 25-21 win over the ninth-seeded Falcons.

Keira Mullen led the locals with nine kills and 11 assists out of EP's 6-2 formation. She added four service aces. Malia Mullen had six kills, four blocks and a pair of aces as well.

"I just said to the girls the first playoff game is the hardest because you don't know what to expect. And people look at our record and see we're undefeated, but this a new group. And they have to figure it out themselves in these situations," said EPHS head coach Alex Butler.

The Townies reached the D-II championship match a year ago, but graduated five contributors from that side and welcomed three brand new players into the fold this fall.

"I thought we started off a bit slow then found our stride, but then in the third game we really struggled with our serve-receive. That's all we talked about the first touch, whether it's serve or serve-receive. And that kind of failed us there for a while. But as we have all season we figured out a way to close it out," Butler added.

East Providence next meets fourth-seeded Barrington in the league semis Tuesday night, Nov. 7, at North Kingstown High School. Match time is 5 o'clock. The nearby Eagles were 3-2 winners over fifth-seeded Middletown in their quarter.

In the quarters, East Providence scored the first four points of the opening set and would not trail en route to the 14-point margin of victory.

The Townies went up 20-9 on a Trinity Johnson-Carter kill. West then had three hitting errors in a row before Daniella Escudero hit an unreturned serve for the Townies to reach game point. Another West hitting error brought the contest to an anticlimactic end.

Game 2 started opposite of the first with West going up early 5-0. The Townies gradually worked their way back into the outing. Another Johnson-Carter kill put the locals on top for keeps at 15-14.

Later, East Providence Nora Fineran helped close out the game with a pair of aces during separate rotations, the second coming to end it with a deep serve just inside the far baseline.

West again led for much of the third game, the Townies only rallying to tie it late at 19-apiece.

The sides exchanged service errors a couple of times before Johnson-Carter gave EP what proved the lead for good with a kill off the block to make 22-21.

Keira Mullen then put down a pair of kills to give the Townies both game and match points. She and Johnson-Carter then combined to block the Falcons' final hit of the night to end it in the locals' favor.

"Even though we had some rough plays, we all stayed in it and acted as a team, which is what we've been working on all season," Mullen said of East Providence's performance in the quarters.

The Townies now turn their attention to Barrington which improved to 13-3 in league outings and has won six matches in a row, 10 of its last 11.

One of those losses was a shutout setback to East Providence back on September 12. The Townies won the match 25-16, 25-21, 25-13.

"They're hot. That's like six or seven (wins) in a row for them," Butler said of the Eagles. "They were one of the teams at the beginning of the season that could be a final four team and they're there. So we'll go play the game and have some fun."