EAST PROVIDENCE –– When Melissa Martin walks into the gym, she checks her troubles at the door because, as she put it, “I know the job I have to do. I’ve done it since ninth grade. If I have a bad day, the team has a bad day. I can’t mess up.”

Last night, Martin did anything but mess up, and as a result her team enjoyed anawesome evening. The Mount St. Charles senior had 41 assists, 7 kills and 9 digs in leading the Mounties to a 3-1 victory over St. Mary Academy-Bay View in a Division II quarterfinal match at the Bay View Athletic/Wellness Center.

Mount St. Charles (13-4) will play the winner of tonight’s Tiverton-West Warwick quarterfinal tomorrow at 5 p.m. in the first of two semifinals at the University of Rhode Island’s Keaney Gym.

Mount’s 27-25, 25-18, 21-25, 25-17 triumph ended the season for Bay View (11-6) and the high school volleyball career for the six seniors who rallied their teammates in the third game.

“We just started talking to each other,” Bay View middle hitter Kalyn Archer said.

“We realized it was potentially the last game for the six seniors on the team,” added setter Samantha Turner, a co-captain, as they wiped tears from red-rimmed eyes. We thought we’d be the only team to beat Prout. Now we won’t get that chance.”

But the Mounties, who finished second behind West Warwick in DII North, will get a chance to beat Prout, the Division II-South’s top team, if they win three games tomorrow night.

Coach Josh D’Abate was ecstatic with his team’s performance. It was the fourth consecutive year that Mount and Bay View faced each other in the playoffs. Bay View won the first two, Mount the last two.

“What a great night!” D’Abate exclaimed. “I give all the credit to the kids.”

Outside hitter Liz Frigon was immense with 13 kills, 8 digs and 5 assists. In the second game she won nine consecutive points on her serve, the longest run of the match.

“Everyone on the team picked it up. We all came together. I knew that if I missed my serve, my teammates would back me up,” she said.

Martin was spectacular all over the floor. Outside hitter Tess Jacobs had 5 kills, 4 assists and 10 digs. Middle blocker Maria Saia had 3 kills, 8 digs and 5 blocks, and middle blocker Kristen Ward had 10 kills and 6 blocks. Erin McQuade chipped in 3 digs and an ace, Caitlyn Lahousse 2 aces and 9 digs and Elizabeth Alexander 2 aces and 2 digs.

Freshman Kelsey Lace had 15 kills and 2 blocks and “won the first two games for us,” D’Abate said. “Talk about a coming-out party! What a way to announce yourself to the league.”

The middle was a Bay View strength this season, and coach Matthew Bowen expected Archer and junior Brittany Wilkinson to overpower Mount’s middle hitters. “We watched Mount St. Charles and didn’t see a whole lot from their middles,” Bowen said.

But the Bay View setters had a tough night. Turner played with a pulled left hamstring that hampered her mobility. She said she would have sat out had it not been the playoffs.

“We couldn’t get it to come together. We just had bad defensive games, and that threw everything else off. We usually run a few trick plays . . . but we had to go to the basics,” Bowen said.

And the Mount middles practiced hard for this match.

“We worked on controlling the net and blocking. We can’t do one-on-one blocking. We have to get two up there and three up there,” D’Abate said.

Which they did most of the night. And Martin, the senior setter, found them.

“I live for the pressure,” she said. “It’s the best feeling when I see [Frigon] hit it.”

mszostak@projo.com