By STEVE MAZZONE

Sports writer

KINGSTON - It wasn’t another shutout and for a couple of games they weren‘t at their best.
But the Mounties are still going to the finals.
Fueled by a strong, all-around game from senior Elizabeth Frigon, Mount St. Charles Academy defeated Scituate in four games in the Division II semifinals with a 25-16, 25-20, 19-25, 25-20 decision at the University of Rhode Island’s Keaney Gymnasium.
The victory advances Mount to the championship tilt on Saturday afternoon at 3 where it will face Cranston West -- a 3-0 winner over Barrington in its semifinal match last night -- back at the URI venue. The Mounties will be looking to capture their first team title since winning it all in 1995.
“It’s been a long time,” said MSC head coach Josh D’Abate, whose squad tied Cranston West for the II-North crown at 15-1. Scituate was third at 12-4. “The goal was to get here. The goal was to get to URI at the beginning of the season. We’re here, we’re in the finals like we wanted to get to. The next match we play is going to be our toughest match of the season.”
Frigon was one of a multitude of returning players that was on last year’s team, which was eliminated by top-seed West Warwick in a grueling, five-game semifinal match. Last night she made sure that wouldn’t happen again with a monster game, recording 20 kills, five aces and 10 digs.
The tall senior ignited the spark when her teammates needed her most. The Mounties coasted through the first two games, but the Spartans were able to get back into the match by taking the third one. And it looked like they were getting the added momentum to deadlock the game in the fourth.
That’s when Frigon stepped it up.
After the Spartans rattled off five straight points to take a 12-8 advantage, Frigon took it upon herself to charge up her teammates. She finished the fourth game with seven of her kills as well as a pair of blocks. Most of that damage was done shortly after Scituate took its four-point advantage as Mount scored 10 unanswered points to take a lead that proved too tough for their rival to overcome.
“I know that my team is always there to back me up,” Frigon said. “Sometimes it’s better to take the risk and pump up the team so that everyone is back together.”
“She had a great match. She had a great match tonight,” D’Abate said. “It was probably the best one I have seen her play. Hopefully she has one better than this left.”
In typical fashion, Mount had solid games from a host of other players, too. Junior Tessa Jacobs was a factor up front and had 10 kills, 12 digs and four aces for the night. Junior Maria Saia (three kills, six digs, three blocks), senior Tayla Rescio (five kills, five blocks), sophomore Kelsey Lace (five kills, five assists) and senior setter Elizabeth Alexander (24 assists, five digs) also contributed greatly to the outcome.
Prior to last night’s match, the Mounties had posted 13 shutouts - a dozen during the regular season along with their 3-0 blanking of Tolman in the quarterfinals last Friday. It looked like it was going to be more of the same after the first two games where the Mounties looked relaxed and confident en route to their 2-0 lead.
“That was just a great start,” D’Abate said. “It took a lot of pressure off our girls early. It put a lot of pressure on them. We came out and did what we had to do early.”
Instead of keeping their foot on the accelerator, though, the Mounties committed a fair share of mental mistakes and let a determined Scituate squad back into the game. The Mounties led just once in the third game at 1-0. Behind by a 15-5 deficit, Mount seemed like it might get back on track. Spurred by a great save from Lace in the backcourt on a long volley that resulted in a Rescio block, the Mounties managed to get within four (18-14) after a 9-3 run. But that would be the closest.
Frigon’s heroics in the fourth game would thwart the comeback bid by the Spartans.
“I feel like we got too comfortable and were thinking, ‘OK we can take it easy,’” Frigon said. “But that shouldn’t have been the case. You always have to keep pushing, keep trying.”
“The first game we came out fired up with a lot of energy. Game 2 was similar,“ D’Abate added. “We were up 2-0 and said, ‘OK we can relax a little bit.’ But this is the semifinals. Every team here is a great team. We can’t afford to do that, period.”
It’s now on to the finals where the Mounties will try and put an end to a 14-year drought when they return to the court this weekend to face the Falcons. The two squads split during the regular season for their only blemishes of the fall.
“We are going to have to really work our butts off the next two days,” D’Abate said. “We have to come out with the right amount of attitude, the right amount of intensity on Saturday to get a win.”