The Cranston East boys volleyball team is set to begin its spring season and had an impressive outing at the Injury Fund exhibition, winning each set it played on Monday evening at nearby Cranston West.

“They played well. There’s still a lot of learning and tweaking that we need to do but they played well and were successful. We have six seniors returning, we have a lot of players in new positions learning a new system. They’re doing a really good job and catching on really fast which is a good thing,” said coach Jhamal Diggs, who is entering his first season as head coach at East. Diggs is a former assistant at La Salle Academy and also coaches the Cranston East girls basketball team.

East’s seniors include Vincent Yin, Jordan Bou, Justin Soriano, Byron Orellana, Rowan Hanley and Alexander Handy.

With a starting lineup made up of entirely seniors, the Bolts are confident that they will be able to make noise in a loaded Division I slate this year. East finished with just two wins last year and is expecting to take a big step forward this time around.

“Experience is our strength right now and that is what we are going to rely on throughout the season. My expectations are high for them. I feel like we can be towards the top (of the standings) this year because of that experience and work ethic,” Diggs said.

The returners also have added motivation after the loss of longtime coach Meg McGonagle, who passed away after a battle with COVID-19 last year. Diggs has already seen the seniors rally together to make their former leader proud.

“The seniors, they’ve been playing for four years now and they just lost their coach to COVID. They are not just out here playing the game, but they’re playing it with a heavy heart. They are giving it their all and they want to show that they can hang in there too,” Diggs said.

East’s first regular season contest was on Wednesday evening on the road against South Kingstown. The results were not available at press time.