BENNINGTON, VT.  9/27/12 – The Keene State College women's volleyball team posted one of its biggest wins of the season, upsetting Southern Vermont College 3-2 in a non-conference match held in Bennington, Vt. on Thursday.

Keene State improves to 7-8 while Southern Vermont (10-1) ranked 13th in the latest New England Women's Volleyball Association Regional Poll, suffers its first loss of the season.

The Owls fell behind 0-2 before rallying for the upset win over the Mountaineers. Keene State dropped the first two games 10-25, 23-25, but came alive to take the next three games 25- 14, 25-17 and 20-18.

Sophomore Sammy Dormio (Leesburg, Va.) had a fine all-around game for the Owls with 12 kills and 24 digs.  The freshman trio of Kaylee Deluga (Dennis, Mass.), Angela Silveri (Poughquag, N.Y. and Catherine Kazazian (Merrimack, N.H.) came up big for KSC. Deluga had season high 15 kills to go with 12 digs; Silveri 12 kills while Kazazian had a season best 10 kills and two blocks. Kazazian  had a very strong game, hitting .556 with no errors on 18 swings.  Freshman setter Alexis Michal (Windham, N.H.) had 26 assists in the match.

Affer dropping the first two games, Keene State came out in the third with and up-paced tempo and went up early, eventually winning the set 25-14.  The Owls carried that momentum into the fourth, sending the match to the final set with a 25-17 win.

The fifth game was close throughout, with neither team being able to pull away from the other.  Keene battled back from five match points to get the upper hand, finally closing out the set, 20-18.

"In the middle of the second set, we started to play," said KSC Coach Bob Weiner.  "The players realized they could play at a higher level if they just focus." 

The Owls didn't hold the lead in the fifth game until the end.  Freshman Kaitlin Boyer (West Greenwich, R.I.) made a match-saving play.  "It was ball off of a block," said Weiner.  "She just turned and threw herself at the ball, popping it over the net and we got the point."

"We know this group is talented," Weiner added.  "We've just been waiting to see this type of intensity." 

Keene State has pair of non-conference games at Roger Williams (RI) University on Saturday, taking on the host team and the University of New England. UNE is ranked 15th in the regional poll.