On Sunday, Oct. 23, Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) Women’s  Volleyball defeated NECC Knights three sets to none in the semi finals at The David M. Bartley Center for Athletics & Recreation in Holyoke.

CCRI Knights won set one 25-19, won set two 25-18 and won the third and final set 25-14.

The winner of this game will play in the championship against Mass Bay or Holyoke.

The game officially started at 12:02 pm

In the first set Haileigh LaFlamme scored the first Knights points when the Knights were trailing 3-1.

The Knights went on to score four more points and take a 5-3 lead.

CCRI tied and took the lead but NECC fought back. When the game was tied at nine a nice save by Ashley Martinez of Lawrence prevented  CCRI from scoring.

The game was 12-11 NECC trailing, but a spike from Caroline Burns of Haverhill tied it up at 12.

CCRI then took the lead and increased that lead by three.

The Knights of NECC were losing 21 to 16 when the timeout was called. CCRI was on a run against Knights.

NECC lost to CCRI 25 to 18.

In the second set the Knights of NECC were losing 2-0, but the Knights scored three straight points to make this game 3-2 in favor of NECC Knights.

The game unfortunately was tied at five after CCRI took the lead. The Knights of NECC did not read the ball if it was in or out. When the ball is out and you don’t touch it, it means the point goes to your team but if it was in and you don’t touch it the point goes to the other team.

After the game I interviewed NECC Knight Women’s Volleyball head coach Mike Pelosi of Haverhill and we talked about reading the ball.

“It wasn’t a pattern that I noticed but what I would say about that is we got percentages and we go off our best guess, so we never know, not even the person hitting the ball and serving the ball know where it is going to land so defensively we tried to read patterns and tried to read the trajectory, we tried to read the spin and in or flow with the ball and make an educated guess where is going in or out,” said Pelosi.

The Knights of NECC were down by five, they were losing 13 to 8.

CCRI’s largest lead of the game so far is 11 when they were down 19 to 8. Who was down 19 to 8, I am a bit confused of whether it is CCRI leading or NECC leading at that point.

CCRI increased that lead to 12 when they were losing 21-9.

“I think that CCRI had a very strong roster this year, and I think that’s credit to the coach, they did a good job recruiting and he did a great job training his team, …. CCRI played today, (it’s)very clear to me

that they were practicing and developing with intensity and I have no doubt if I work (at) one of his practices I (would) see the players sprinting around the entire time they (were) very focused…” said Coach Pelosi.

The Knights of NECC were on a 5-1 run when CCRI coach called a time out.

The Knights of NECC were still down 22-14 and they lost the second set 25-18.

In the third set the Knights of NECC got a few points early to begin the set.

Heather Walsh of Harwich made a nice block from keeping the Knights of CCRI from scoring.

The Knights lost 25-14 in set three.