It was a gritty win for the Keene State College volleyball team in their matchup with league rival Plymouth State on Tuesday.

After going up one set to none the Owls conceded the second set to tie it up and were on their way to conceding the third until a series of kills by sophomore Sammy Dormio (Leesburg, V.A) and a couple untimely errors by Plymouth State had the score at 19-15 Keene. From there the Owls were able to close out the set.

The fourth set started the same way, this time with the Owls going down 11-19. Then the Owls woke up.

Multiple diving digs by Dormio kept the Owls defense in line, bringing the team all the way back to 23-23 and eventually to the 25-23 victory in the final set.

After the game, Coach Bob Weiner was understandably excited after the match.

“To be blunt, it was the biggest win of the year,” Weiner said, still grinning. “It puts us 3-0 in conference and sets us up nicely for the tournament.”

“The team was great, and to come back in that fourth set after being down 8…That was a gutsy win.”

Dormio had a solid all-around game, pacing the Owls with 20 digs to go along with 6 kills. Freshman Kaylee Deluga (Dennis, MA) had 12 kills and 12 digs will freshman teammate Angela Silveri (Poughquag, N.Y.) had 10 kills and two block assists.

Freshmen Haley Willumsen (Shelter Island, N.Y.) and Alexis Michal (Windham, N.H.) combined for 33 assists.

The next Keene State matches are in the Union College tournament Friday and Saturday.