The Pilgrim girls volleyball team has overcome some recent adversity to punch its ticket to the upcoming Division III playoffs.

After losing four players to quarantine, the club went on to drop four straight contests to push them outside of the playoff picture. The Pats had to win two of their final four games of the regular season to reach the playoffs and did just that by sweeping St. Ray’s last week then topped Barrington 3-2 on Tuesday evening.

The Saints got the better of the early season matchup, rolling to a 3-1 win. Despite playing shorthanded, Pilgrim came out and turned the tables last Thursday in a decisive victory.

After edging the Saints in the first set 27-25, Pilgrim would take a five-point lead in the second set. However, St. Ray’s would go on a run and erase the deficit to tie things at 18-18. Pilgrim responded and would take the second set 25-19 and then roll to a 25-15 win in the third to complete the sweep.

“With the group of girls that we have and the chemistry, we feel like we can overcome any adversity that we face. The energy that we have on the court, we do everything with our heart and soul. Today we got our momentum back,” said Pilgrim senior Madel Cabreja.

“We have a new lineup and a new mindset. The first time that we played them we got in our own heads, things weren’t clicking. Today though, everything was flowing and we were communicating.

That was the biggest difference.”

A key matchup in the for Pilgrim’s first touchdown game was Pilgrim’s Gianna Ramos versus St. Ray’s power hitter Victoria Adegboyega.

Ramos would get the better of the battle and help limit the damage throughout, which would prove to be crucial.

“She’s so talented and I told her that after the first game. Going into today, I knew that they were going to keep feeding her. I knew I was going to have to keep my hands up and I got my hands on her hits which made me happy,” said Ramos.

Pilgrim coach Jason Metivier added: “(Adegboyega) is a tremendous player and that was a great matchup. We got lucky that we got that matchup tonight, our normal middle is out, so we were scrambling a little bit. Gianna did a good job of blocking her shots which caused her to start tipping. Our defense took advantage of that, scooped it up and went right back at her.”

Metivier was proud of the team’s response after losing four straight games.

“Tonight was a different night for us.

We’re down four girls due to quarantine so we had to totally change the lineup. They went out there with a lot of heart and determination and it worked. Our serves killed us, but everything else was working. I just told them that we had to prevent unforced errors, and once they did that they began to pull away,” Metivier said.

Pilgrim edged Portsmouth the following game to officially earn a postseason berth. Ramos believes that the team’s bond will help it make some noise come playoff time.

“This team has a lot of chemistry and oncewe know how to use it, we’re pretty unstoppable,” Ramos said. “We all trust each other and are there for each other. At the end of the day, that’s what helps us win.”