PORTSMOUTH — You never heard it so loud inside the Portsmouth High School field house Friday afternoon.

The entire school body was there to cheer on the Patriots in a unified volleyball game against Middletown. Portsmouth won the match, two games to one.

In unified sports, students with disabilities (the athletes) and those without (the helpers or partners) play together on the same team. The varsity sports program falls under the purview of the R.I. Interscholastic League (RIIL) in partnership with R.I. Special Olympics.

School Athletic Director Stephen Trezvant explained why all the students were there.

“For the last few years a lot of the unified kids have come to us and asked to do an all-school assembly because they want to show the school community what they can do,” he said. “We’ve had the opportunity to go to other schools that do this. They’ve seen the other side, when they were the visiting team, so they wanted this experience here at Portsmouth High School. They’re really proud of what they do and work tremendously hard every day.”

Mr. Trezvant said it was an “honor” to host the assembly for the team.

“This has done so much for our school community in terms of opening a lot of doors for our student with special needs,” he said.

The crowd was rocking from the start, when co-captain Kyle Boudreau put the first point on the board for Portsmouth with a jump serve for an ace. 

Kyle had a standout match, scoring on spikes near the net as well as on his strong serve, drawing roars from the crowd.

Portsmouth won the first game easily, 25-10, and edged the Islanders in the second game, 25-21. One of the highlights of the second game was a serve by the Patriots’ Gabby Levreault, which went untouched over the gym divider that was tied up near the ceiling and bounced in the Middletown side of the court.

Middletown led for most of the third game, enjoying an eight-point lead at one point before Portsmouth crawled back to tie things up at 22 points apiece. The Islanders held off the home team, however, winning the final game by a score of 28-26.

Portsmouth next hosts Barrington at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 19.