The Cranston West girls’ volleyball team’s season came to a close last Tuesday against Prout, but there was no shame in going out the way the Falcons did.

Facing Prout, which had won six consecutive state championships across three divisions, West clawed its way to a fourth game against the Crusaders and fell just short of forcing a winner-take-all fifth game, as it lost 25-23 in the fourth to end up with a 3-1 defeat in the preliminary round of the Division I playoffs.

Prout was the No. 3 seed from D-I-South and had gone 10-4 during the regular season. West, on the other hand, was the No. 6 seed from D-I-North and was 4-10 during the year.

Yet, in making the Crusaders sweat out the victory, the Falcons showed that they could play with the upper echelon of the division, regardless of their record.

“Really proud,” West head coach Tom Ferri said. “I thought we matched up pretty well against them. Maybe we needed a little more seasoning, but I think our hitters hit the ball as well in this game as they did all year long.”

West lost the first game by a 25-18 score before rallying for a 27-25 win in game two. Prout dominated game three for a 25-16 win, but the Falcons came back before falling just short in game four.

The Crusaders were caught off guard, but managed to right the ship just in time against a team they assumed wouldn’t be much of a challenge.

“The match that they played against us tonight is probably more like an 8-6 record rather than 4-10,” Prout head coach Dan Greene said of West. “My assistant coach and I were talking about it early, how they were so in rhythm.”

The fourth game was the most dramatic, as the Falcons desperately tried to stay alive. They went down 9-5 early, but won four consecutive points not long afterwards to take a 15-14 lead. During that span, West got a kill from Courtney Lambrese, a block from Courtney Salisbury and an ace from Carlotta Trapassi.

Prout called a timeout, and tied the game at 16 when it returned to the court. It then took a 19-17 lead and appeared to be ready to slam the door, but the Falcons just wouldn’t go away.

Lambrese cut the deficit in half with a big hit, and she tied the score at 19 on the next point with an ace. Gianna Procaccini then put West in front with a kill.

“Cranston just gave us a really good fight,” Greene said. “They kept attacking. I was really impressed with how, even when the game got tight, their girls were swinging aggressively.”

West took a 23-21 lead on a kill from Salisbury, forcing Prout into another timeout. After the Crusaders won the next point to draw within one, West appeared to win the following point on a tip by Caroline DeCataldo.

An official watching the play called the ball out, though, giving Prout the point and the serve. With West rattled over the call, the Crusaders won the final two points to clinch the match.

“It was hard to see from where we were,” Ferri said. “It looked like it caught some of the line. It would have been 24-22, with the serve. We could have closed that game out. But that’s the way the game goes. Sometimes you get the calls, sometimes you don’t.”

Still, Ferri couldn’t be disappointed with anything his team did.

“It was tough to lose that way,” he said. “But I’m really proud of the way they played.”

Prout came out hot in the first game, controlling play en route to leads of 10-5 and eventually 21-10. Brooke Sullivan controlled the middle for the Crusaders, and the outcome was never really in doubt.

“The first game, we were a little nervous I think,” Ferri said. “We made a lot of unforced errors. We probably made 10, 12 unforced errors in the first game, and I think that was the difference in that game.”

West settled down in the second game, as it was the one that jumped out to a big lead. It dominated early and went up 19-12, but the Crusaders started to make a comeback. They won eight of the next nine points to tie the game at 20, and they eventually had a game point at 25-24.

Prout committed a service error, though, tying the game. West then got an ace from Alexa Jillson and a net violation on the Crusaders to finish the game with a 27-25 win.

The third game was all Prout, as it led 5-0 and turned that into a 17-10 advantage. West never made a serious run, and the Crusaders easily closed out the game with a 25-16 victory.

Then came the fireworks of the fourth game.

“After we settled in and we beat them, it came down to that fourth game and the ball could have been in,” Ferri said. “We could have been up by one, game point, and it came down to a point at the end there.”

The game was the last one for five seniors on the West team – DeCataldo, Ashley Waterman, Lauren English, Ashley DeSimone and Emily Tilton.

They didn’t get to go out with a win, but they still went out with a positive.

“They played really well,” Ferri said. “They probably played their best game of the season. They had their confidence.”

Prout went on to lose 3-1 in the quarterfinals to East Providence.