PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Molly Wetherbee powered down 14 kills and attacked at a .619 clip to pace three Owls with double-digit kills as the Keene State College women's volleyball team clinched a spot in the upcoming Little East Conference tournament with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-19) win over Rhode Island College on Saturday at The Murray Center.

Records

• Keene State:  11-15, 4-4 LEC
• Rhode Island College:  9-15, 2-5 LEC

How It Happened
The Owls will be the No. 5 seed in the postseason conference tournament which begins the week after next, and got there thanks to their second-best offensive match of the season as they hit .272 including over .300 in each of the first two sets to build an insurmountable lead against the Anchorwomen, who were playing for their playoff life and are now eliminated.  In addition to Wetherbee, Veronica Kroha added 11 kills on 20 total attempts (.400 pct.) and Sarah Bartels finished with 10 (.280 pct.), six digs, and a pair of aces.  Alexis Small finished with 39 assists and 10 digs.  KSC also had three with double-digit digs, including Reagan Fleming with 18 and Gigi Stake with 14, helping RIC's attacking percentage go down in each set – bottoming out at .086 in the third.

Rhode Island College had only two leads in the match – at 2-1 and 3-2 in the opening set – as KSC otherwise was in control for the vast majority of the time.  Nursing a one-point early lead (11-10) in the opening set, the Owls began to pull away with three consecutive points that forced a timeout from the Anchorwomen, and those points eventually ballooned into an 8-1 burst that made it 19-12, culminating with four consecutive kills, two from Stake, one from Stephanie Olah, and one from Kroha.  The home team chipped away slowly, but it took them until it was 24-21 to get within three again, and as soon as they did Rhiannon Hodovanec served into the net to give KSC the set.  The Owls racked up 16 kills – five from Wetherbee – in that frame.

Keene State was on their way from there, scoring six of the first seven points in the second to force a very early timeout from RIC, and later used a 10-3 push to turn a 7-5 edge into a 17-8 gap that ended with a block and two kills from Kroha.  Two straight spikes from Wetherbee made it 20-12, and the Owls eventually closed out a 25-20 win to go up 2-0 in the match despite RIC making another last-ditch push, getting as close as 22-19 on Sarina Marines' ace.  However, an Anchorwomen attacking error and Olah kill brought up set point, which the Owls locked up on a service error for the second consecutive frame.  Wetherbee had six kills on eight swings in the stanza and Kroha four kills on seven attempts as the Owl middles continued to eat up the Anchorwomen.  KSC outhit RIC .367 to .118 to take the commanding lead.

The third proved to be almost a carbon copy of the first, as after the Owls jumped out with the first four points, the hosts drew within 11-10 as KSC's offense briefly sputtered.  However, Bartels recorded consecutive kills and Wetherbee then did the same to push the lead right back to five and force a RIC timeout, and the Anchorwomen continued to search for answers, falling behind by seven (18-11) and burning their second timeout not long after as Wetherbee and Stake each added another kill.  Keene State's lead never dipped below five from there, as Olah made it 20-14 and consecutive spikes by Kroha put the Owls up 22-15.  Kroha brought up match point four points later at 24-17, and after Bartels misfired twice, converted the third chance to lock up KSC's win and put herself into double digits in kills.

"We started to play towards our potential today, and it's about time," said Keene State head coach Bob Weiner. "We've secured fifth place in the conference and pretty much know who we'll get for our first-round game.  We think we can compete and give teams some trouble.  I'm looking forward to it."

Marines paced RIC with 11 kills and hit .312 while Megan Philbrick had seven (.294 pct.), but the Anchorwomen were minus-16 in kills and minus-18 in digs in the loss and had only one block.

Service Aces

• KSC is 8-2 when hitting better than .150 in a match this season.  They are also 6-3 when having more than 60 digs.
• Bartels has 37 kills over her last five matches (7.4 per match).  She has hit at least .250 in each of the last three.
• The Owls have won five straight in the series and are 25-8 all-time vs. RIC.

Up Next

• Keene State closes the regular season with a pair of non-conference road matches, including at Worcester State University (12-13, 5-1 MASCAC) on Tuesday, October 31 at 7:00 p.m.
• Rhode Island College ends their season at Western Connecticut State University (15-7, 4-2 LEC) next Saturday in a tri-match that also features Bard College (11-18, 0-8 Liberty League).  Start times are 12:00 and 2:00 p.m., respectively.