KEENE, N.H. – Sydney Racevicius and Lily Sills combined for 28 kills – three fewer than the total the Keene State College women's volleyball amassed – as Rivier University posted a 3-1 non-conference win over the Owls Tuesday night at Spaulding Gymnasium to snap KSC's four-match winning streak.

Records

• Keene State:  7-13
• Rivier:  18-4

Postgame Interview (Coach Weiner)

How It Happened
Keene State posted attacking percentages of .208 or greater in each match of that surge that also helped them move into third place in the Little East Conference standings, but were held to their lowest mark in more than a month (.071) – since September 17 against Johnson & Wales University – while dropping the final two sets of a four-set defeat to the Raiders.  After a 25-20 loss in an opening frame that featured 13 ties and eight lead changes, the Owls bounced back in somewhat of a strange second set where Rivier had an 11-6 edge in kills but made 11 attacking errors, six service errors, and two reception errors.  KSC used a 7-1 burst to turn what had been a one-point (11-10) deficit into a five-point lead at 17-12 as they turned up the defense to slow the Raiders' attack, and seemed well in control, going up 19-14 after two more attacking miscues in a row.  However, the visitors came storming back and threatened to steal the set, tying it at 22 with three straight on kills by Sills and Racevicius.  One of Rivier's serving errors came on the very next point – a critical one – as KSC retook the lead before closing out the set and evening the match on an ace by Blanchet and the Raiders' 11th attack error of the set.

The opening two frames saw the teams tie 23 times and the lead change hands on 14 occasions, but as a swing third set played out, Rivier took control late and as it turns out pulled away late to win for the fifth time in the last six head-to-head meetings with KSC.   The Owls started slow in the third, surrendering five points in a row to fall behind 7-3, which eventually became 12-5 after a kill by Racevicius sandwiching a serving error and bad set by Keene State.  Out of a timeout, the Owls put up four in a row that included a spike for Sydney Johnson and two aces by Veronica Kroha to get right back in it.  Rivier answered with two to make it a five-point gap (14-9), but KSC was still not done, tying the game at 14 on two consecutive kills by Molly Wetherbee before a block by she and Johnson on Racevicius that made it 16-14.  A swing from Gigi Stake still had the Owls ahead by two (18-16), but the offense was shut down from there, mustering just two more points – one of which came on a service error.  Rivier had a whopping 16 of those on the night, but they also had a 54-31 advantage in kills to more than offset the serving issues.

Leading 2-1 in the match, the Raiders closed it out by piling up 16 spikes and hitting the best they had of any set (.306) while the Owls remained limited to .103 and served consecutively just two times in the fourth, never leading as they hoped to force a decisive fifth set.  Rivier successfully took KSC off serve on their first chance 12 of 17 times (70 percent) and, after they saw the Owls erase 5-2 and 7-3 deficits to tie at eight (and nine), were the far better team down the stretch, firing down four straight kills and an ace to open a 14-9 lead.  KSC called a timeout after the four balls in a row hit the floor, but then surrendered an ace right out of it.  A blocked ended the burst, but the closest they ever got afterward was three (18-15), as their only other point of the match came on a Rivier serving error.  The Raiders scored seven of the final eight points, four of the last five on kills (three by Racevicius).  KSC's final kill came from Sydney Johnson that made it 18-14.  They did not have one on any of the final nine rallies.  The Owls had hit .108 in a sleepy four-set loss to Regis College (Mass.), also a member of the GNAC, on October 4 before the winning streak, and tonight finished with a 31-to-22 kill-to-error ratio.

Johnson led KSC with eight kills, two digs, two block assists, and two aces.  Wetherbee had an efficient seven kills on .333 hitting, three digs, and three block assists, while Cassidy Samuelson also had seven spikes.

Racevicius had a match-high 16 kills (.113 pct.) to pace Rivier, while Sills added 12 and hit .240.  Avery Pollard had 41 assists, nine digs, seven kills, three block assists, and two aces as the Raiders improved to 3-4 away from home.

Service Aces

• In all, the match had 32 ties and 17 lead changes, with the lead changing hands that many times all within the first three sets.
• Keene State leads the all-time series 15-14, but has lost 11 of the last 14 since 2014.
• The Raiders improved to 2-1 against LEC opponents on the season, as they swept Castleton University on September 10 and were swept at Plymouth State University – who KSC beat – on October 4.

Up Next

• The Owls have another mid-week non-conference home match on Thursday (October 20) when they welcome Western New England University (14-10, 2-4 CCC) to Spaulding Gymnasium for a 7:00 p.m. start.
• River has a GNAC match on the same night at 6:30 p.m. against Anna Maria College (3-14, 0-7 GNAC).