Lincoln boys volleyball aces its final test before playoffs

PAWTUCKET — The Lincoln boys volleyball team had one more test left, and the Lions aced it.

Division II’s top team all season had to go into Pawtucket and turn back a championship-caliber co-op. If the league title returns to Lincoln for the second time in three years, the Lions certainly showed why on Thursday night.

Lincoln (13-0) strung together six straight points to steal the first set and flashed their dominance in the second frame. The third set belonged to the city co-op, but the Lions rallied in the decisive fourth frame for a 3-1 (25-23, 25-12, 22-25, 25-22) triumph.

“This was our big game right here,” Lincoln’s Tyler Biddle said. “Proving ourselves here was us showing that we’re not just going to let up easy.”

Jacob Lizotte tallied back-to-back winning kills in the first set that saw Lincoln claw back from a 23-19 deficit. The future top seed in the playoffs then stormed to 11-5 and 18-10 leads in the second frame.

Lincoln’s presence at the net, behind Lizotte, Biddle, Jackson Colton, Sebastian DeCubellis and Brian Gugel, was unwavering. Lincoln has plenty of depth to rotate through that Pawtucket, or anyone else in league play, can’t match.

“It felt really good,” Biddle said of the win. “But it was also a huge game. We’ve been coming off of a lot of pretty easy games, so we really had to change the energy fast.”

Said Gugel: “It was an important game on our schedule, but we’re taking every game one at a time. And we’ve got another game tomorrow.”

This stretch of success for Lincoln is no surprise either. After a 14-2 runner-up finish in 2019, Lincoln’s been on a run that will eventually lead them to the D-I ranks. The Lions managed a 2-9 season in 2021 and went perfect in the regular season the following spring. They then brought home the program’s first crown in 2023. Lincoln also nearly pushed top-seeded Cranston West to five sets in the semifinals last year.

“It just proves that we could have gone up to D-I and we deserve that spot,” DeCubellis said of the season. “Hopefully we get moved up eventually. Everybody is all-in.”

Lincoln has three games left to chase perfection. It’ll travel to Woonsocket and West Warwick before hosting Johnston in the finale. They’ve beaten all three teams already, including sweeps against Woonsocket and Johnston.

The Lions will almost certainly finish with the top seed, but that’s no surprise as they lost only six sets to league foes this season. The next test Lincoln will face will likely be at Rhode Island College.

“Both teams, we know that we are the top teams in the division,” DeCubellis said. “We both have that dog in us. But tonight, we outshined them. We played amazing and we knew what we had to do. We studied, we watched our film and it helped.”

Pawtucket will likely finish with the No. 2 seed followed by Central Falls. West Warwick and Westerly might go to the wire for the fourth and fifth seeds in league play. The Bulldogs host D-I’s Chariho on Friday, and win-or-lose, that will help them in the league standings.

But everyone is chasing Lincoln as they have been this spring.

“We just have to play like we did today,” Biddle said. “We need to bring the energy and come off strong from the start.”