Volleyball Game Preview: Cranston East Thunderbolts vs. North Kingstown Skippers

Cranston East is 1-9 against North Kingstown since May of 2022 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Thunderbolts will head out to square off against the Skippers at 6:30 p.m. Both teams are coming into the matchup red-hot, with Cranston East sitting on three straight wins and North Kingstown on 19.

Cranston East is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Rhode Island's top teams: Barrington, who was ranked 21st at the time (Cranston East was ranked fourth). The Thunderbolts put the hurt on the Eagles with a sharp 3-0 victory on Tuesday.

Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-9, 25-20, 25-14.

Meanwhile, North Kingstown made easy work of Barrington on Thursday and carried off a 3-0 win.

The match finished with set scores of 25-10, 25-10, 25-16.

Cranston East better focus on containing Stephen Dufour and Evan Shea as the pair were huge in North Kingstown's win. Dufour had 14 digs and three aces, while Shea had 18 assists and ten digs. That's the most aces Dufour has posted since back in May of 2024.

North Kingstown pushed their record up to 19-0 with the victory, which was their 18th straight at home dating back to last season. As for Cranston East, their win bumped their record up to 8-4.

Cranston East came up short against North Kingstown when the teams last played last Tuesday, falling 3-1. Can the Thunderbolts avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.