Having qualified for the state tournament last year for the first time in the program’s existence, the King Philip girls volleyball squad was looking to improve upon that performance this year.
Unfortunately, the Warriors opened the season with a home contest against a tough non-league opponent in Hopkinton and were swept by the Hillers in three sets.
“This was not only the first game of the season, but with the hurricane last week, we didn’t get to practice all that much,” KP Coach Cindy Souza said. “We have a lot of returning talent as well as height, and I believe that we will get back to where we were last year.”
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In the opening set, King Philip looked strong and poised to walk out of the gym with a win as they scored the first three points of the contest. While the Warriors started off hot, they quickly cooled off, falling 25-22, 25-16 and 25-8 to the visitors.
In the early goings, KP held a 12-8 advantage in the first set, but that would be the final time they would lead Hopkinton on the evening.
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“I know that we are going to have a strong team this year. We just didn’t show it tonight,” the coach said. “This is by no means any indication on how we can play. We had a lot of unforced errors and net violations and basically beat ourselves.”
After being edged out in the first set, King Philip couldn’t get things moving in the right direction in the second set. Hopkinton opened up the set with a 4-1 lead and never once gave the Warriors the opportunity to overtake them.
Throughout the set, the Hillers held a comfortable four-point lead, and every time that KP got things going and closed the gap, the visitors would take control of the reigns and knock the Warriors back down.
After the Warriors trailed 15-7, Becca Gemelli’s serving got the Warriors back to within four at 15-11, but Hopkinton would run off the next eight points to put King Philip on the brink of losing its second straight set. KP would grab another six points before the Hillers closed the set with a nine-point victory.
Once again in the third set, Hopkinton grabbed a quick 4-1 lead and would race off to a 25-8 win to close out the home team in three sets.
Souza is hoping the leadership of senior’s Casey Norris, Katie McEachern and Jodi Cullity shines through over the next few contests and King Philip gets back to its winning ways in the Hockomock League. If it doesn’t being the smallest fish in the big pond may come back to hurt the Warriors.
KP will visit Franklin in a Hock battle on Friday evening at 6pm.