KEENE, N.H. – Senior outside hitter Sydney Johnson put up 18 kills and hit over .400 as the Keene State College women's volleyball team closed the regular season portion of their non-conference schedule with a 3-0 (27-25, 25-20, 25-23) victory over New England College Tuesday night at Spaulding Gymnasium.

Records

• Keene State:  10-14
• New England College:  10-16

Postgame Interview (Coach Weiner)
Postgame Interview (Sydney Johnson)

How It Happened
Two of the three sets involved nail biting finishes, but it was ultimately the Owls who won for the seventh time in their last nine matches as they look to gather momentum heading into the postseason.  They will also look to better sustain momentum within sets, but on this night, behind their senior offensive leader, they did more than enough to knock off the Pilgrims, who have lost three out of their last four and fell to 3-9 away from home on the year.  Johnson now has 50 kills in KSC's last three wins and is third in the conference with 246, 12 behind being alone in second in that category.  She started on fire right off the bat, getting the Owls' opening kill of the night and recorded six in the opening set without any errors as KSC rallied to take it in extra points.  In the second, Johnson powered down half (eight out of 16) of the Owls' kills as the home team won with relative ease despite an undesired surge by NEC at the end.  The third saw four more spikes against just one error for her as Keene State used a timely late push to avoid having to go four sets (or more).  In total, add it up, and you get an 18-kill night against only three errors for the Brentwood, N.H. native, who hit .417.  As a team, KSC thoroughly outhit NEC .258 to .128, including by over 100 points in each of the opening two sets.  In addition to Johnson, Cassidy Samuelson had nine kills on a .250 hitting clip, while Gigi Stake had eight (.103 pct.) and added 16 digs.  Molly Wetherbee finished with seven spikes (.250 pct.) and five blocks, while Kacie Blanchet had 36 assists and 10 digs.

New England College was led by Amber Thi's 10 kills and 12 digs, but she was held to .091 hitting.  Renee McBride-Rogers finished with eight spikes (.261 pct.).

Keene State took control of the match ultimately by coming through when it mattered most, erasing late deficits in the first and third sets.  In the first, they rallied from a 22-20 hole with four straight on two kills, a block, and a Pilgrims' error.  NEC answered with three of their own and nearly snatched the set back, but two kills by Wetherbee sandwiching a block by she and Samuelson rescued the Owls.  KSC pulled away relatively early in the second, as a spike by Stake put them up 5-2 and later two in a row for Johnson made it 9-5.  NEC had used both their timeouts by the time it was 12-7, and the Owls kept the ball rolling even after those, taking a 17-9 edge on Veronica Kroha's middle attack.  Three kills and a block for Johnson on four consecutive points put KSC up 11 (23-12), their largest lead of the match.  It was not entirely smooth closing it out, as New England College scored eight of the next nine to make it 24-20 before Wetherbee's well-placed kill fell in the middle of the court put the Owls up 2-0 in the match.
The third set was much more like the first, and actually even more controlled by New England College, who scored the first three points and did not face a deficit of any kind until a Samuelson kill put KSC in front 20-19.  It was a short-lived lead for the Owls, as the Pilgrims went on a brief 4-1 burst to take a 23-21 edge on a kill from McBride-Rogers and an ace from Jaycie Kodama and seemed in position to force a fourth set.  They ultimately never scored again, as out of a timeout, Samuelson kept KSC right there before two consecutive errant sets by Arianna Blaize Llamas put her team down (24-23) and put the Owls at match point.  After it took a while for set point to come in the second, this time around it was much different, as on their first chance, Blanchet set up Stake for the match-ending kill.  Keene State emerged victorious in a pair of sets (the first and the third) that featured a combined 26 ties and 11 lead changes.  There were just one and one, respectively, in the second frame that the Owls firmly controlled.

Service Aces

• Johnson currently has 706 career kills over 91 matches (314 sets).  She has one regular season match and an undetermined amount of postseason action remaining.  Tenth place on KSC's all-time career kills list is Shelby Ellis '05, who had 789 (the sets were played to 30 back then) on .191 hitting.  Johnson is an almost equal .192 career hitter.
• The Owls have won four of five meetings all-time, including all four at Spaulding Gymnasium.
• It is NEC's final season in the New England Collegiate Conference, which was left with just four teams in recent years.  They will join the GNAC starting next year.  The Pilgrims are in just their sixth year of existence after they began the varsity program in 2017.

Up Next

• The Owls host Rhode Island College on Senior Day this Saturday (October 29) for a 1:00 p.m. start.  If KSC wins, they are guaranteed second (if Eastern Connecticut State University loses) or third (if ECSU also wins).  If the Owls were upset by the Anchorwomen, it would open up further scenarios where they could fall lower in the standings depending on results around the league.
• New England College closes their regular season with a home contest against Eastern Nazarene University (19-1, 4-0 NECC) on the same day, also at 1:00 p.m.