By RYAN D. MURRAY

The Thunderbolts handled the Falcons 3-1 (25-27), (25-18), (27-25), (25-11) on Friday night at Cranston High School East during a Boys Division I volleyball battle.

It was the seniors that carried East.

Vincent Yin led the Bolts with 19 assists.

“Vincent Yin, incredible player, incredible athlete,” East head coach Jhamal Diggs said. “He takes charge of our offense and he’s like the quarterback. Everything runs through him and he does a really good job of making the players around him better. And that’s what he did tonight. Some of our hitters who are young, Justhin Reyes (sophomore), got in there and he stepped up, but that’s also due to Vincent Yin’s experience and leadership.”

“So yeah, great night by Vincent Yin,” Diggs added. “Just making everybody better on the floor tonight. I think he stood out the most to me. (Alex) Handy another player that stepped up huge. He’s got some good size, he can put down the ball.”

Handy finished with eight kills and Byron Orellana contributed five kills, while Jordan Bou added four aces.        

Bou, who many feel is a top player in the state, is working his way back from the disabled list.

“His normal position is outside hitter,” Diggs said. “He has been playing libero due to an injury that he had earlier in the season. So, we’re just trying to work him back into the offense right now. But he had an incredible game also with his defensive ability. So, for now, we think we’re going to keep him at this position until we need to do anything else.”

The Falcons were topped by Aidan Hay, who had 24 assists, 11 digs, three kills and one ace, Chris Buonaccorsi, 17 kills, seven digs, and two blocks, and Lucian Spermullo, seven kills, one block and one assist.

“Lucian has a lot of power,” Falcons head coach Jennifer Ferencko said. “He’s got a good hit, and Chris Buonaccorsi, who’s our outside No. 1, he’s got a lot of power too. And Aidan, my setter, played really well.”

West was without three of its starters due to April vacation.

“We played well without our starters,” Ferencko said. “It was a full team effort. We had some struggles, but they were passing really well today and they were hitting and executing how they should have been. So, hopefully we’ll get them the second time around.”

There were a few players playing unfamiliar positions and Ferencko was impressed by what she saw.

“Christian Mak, who plays middle,” Ferencko said. “This is only his second game playing middle. Usually, he plays right side. And then, Tommy Pilderian, he usually is a right side player also, and he hit outside today. So, I had players in positions they don’t usually play, which is nice to see that they can be versatile and play in different spots.”

 “And I had a couple of kids come in for serving,” Ferencko continued. “I had Ronnie (Davidson) and I had Ricky (Vicente) come in to serve and they did their job and they did what they were supposed to. So, it was a team effort. They played really well together today.”

The two teams tied nine times during the first set, including a deadlock at 25.

The Falcons won the first set when Buonaccorsi dished to Hay for a kill to get to game-point. Then, Mak put a spike past a diving Bou, which gave West the 27-25 victory of the first set and a 1-0 lead in the match.

Coach Diggs had a hunch his team may start off slow out of the gate, but after the opening set, they pulled it together.

“So, Wednesday, we came out, we played La Salle,” Diggs explained. “We played really hard. Knowing my team really well, I had a feeling we’d come out flat, but we regrouped. We got warmed up and in set 2, set 3, and set 4, we were able to come out and get back to our playing of volleyball.”

In the second set, East got to game-point at 24-15 when Pilderian returned a serve out of bounds.

But Bou committed a service error, and then Buonaccorsi blocked Orellana and drew the Falcons within six.

Lastly, Spremullo made a service error, which handed East a 25-18 victory of the second set and evened the match at 1.

The squads were deadlocked at 25 in the third set before Hay returned a shot out of bounds and that got the Bolts to game-point.

Reyes capped the set with a spike in front and gave East a 27-25 triumph of the third set and a 2-1 lead in the match.

The Bolts jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the fourth set.

East increased its margin to 16-6 after a block from Yin, two points from Jackson Rennick, and an ace from Kayto Kompradith.

Reyes then scored two points via a block and a point in front, and that upped the Bolts advantage to 24-11. East concluded the match when Bou assisted to Handy for a kill, which gave the Bolts a 25-11 win of the fourth set and a 3-1 victory in the match.

East improved to 3-3 with the win and hosted East Greenwich, who is also 3-3, on Tuesday. Then, the Bolts host Bishop Hendricken (5-2) on Friday at 5 p.m.

West fell to 2-6 and hoped to get back on track when it played at South Kingstown (0-6) on Wednesday. The Falcons play again on Thursday at home against Classical (1-7) at 6:30 p.m.