The Cranston West Falcons will challenge the Classical Purple at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Cranston West has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the contest with seven straight losses, while Classical will come in with three straight victories.
Cranston West is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Rhode Island's top teams: Chariho, who was ranked 16th at the time (Cranston West was ranked 21st). The Falcons fell just short of the Chargers by a score of 3-2 on Thursday. While the Falcons didn't get the win, they did start the game off strong, beating the Chargers 25-12 in the first set.
Cranston West started the match hot and won the first two sets, but they struggled down the stretch and lost the last three. The final score came out to 12-25, 18-25, 25-16, 25-22, 15-7.
Meanwhile, Classical got the win against East Greenwich on Thursday by a conclusive 3-0.
Classical got the W, but it wasn't easy, at least in the second set. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-13, 32-30, 25-20.
Cranston West better focus on containing Angelina Pham and Monoluwa Adeniyi as the pair were huge in Classical's win. Pham had ten digs, while Adeniyi had nine aces and three digs. Those nine aces gave Adeniyi a new career-high. Marlowe Castille also deserves some recognition as she had her first block of the season.
Classical was lethal from the service line and finished the match with 15 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least five aces in 15 consecutive matchups.
Classical's win bumped their record up to 9-7. As for Cranston West, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-6.
Cranston West was able to grind out a solid victory over Classical when the teams last played back in October of 2024, winning 3-1. Will the Falcons repeat their success, or do the Purple have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
