NEW LONDON, N.H. – Jessica Timothy and Stephanie Olah combined for 20 kills against only four errors as the Keene State College women's volleyball team hit .304, easily a season high, while running away with a 3-0 (25-11, 25-17, 25-15) victory over Colby-Sawyer College in non-conference action Wednesday night at the Hogan Sports Center.

Records

• Keene State:  5-9
• Colby-Sawyer:  2-13

How It Happened
The Owls never trailed in either of the first two sets, and did not have any difficulty winning all three as they look to right the ship heading into October and their remaining seven conference matches.  They opened the match tonight by scoring the first eight and 12 of the first 13 points.  It later became 18-5 in the first set, and that more or less told the story.  In the second, KSC scored the opening four points and later led 10-5 after four consecutive kills from Olah, Molly Wetherbee (two), and Gigi Stake.  A Theresa Norris service ace made it 15-7, and swings from Stake and Olah had KSC in front by seven (20-13).  The Chargers never got closer than six after that while falling into a 2-0 match hole.

Colby-Sawyer took their first lead of the night when they scored the opening two points of the third, but the Owls steadily took control from there, going in front 9-5 on an ace by Sarah Bartels and they never trailed from there.  A CSC service error and then an ace by Veronica Kroha had the Owls in front 14-8.  The home team made a brief surge to get back within two (16-14), but it did not last long, as a spike from Annaliese Rudberg kicked off a 6-0 burst that made it an eight-point gap.  Norris had three aces and Stake two kills in that span that removed any doubt from the result of the set.  Katie Mollberg, who had Colby-Sawyer's final three points, ended KSC's run very briefly before the Owls scored the final three for a 25-15 win.  Overall, KSC tallied nine of the final 10 points of the evening to finish it the way it started.

"We've made some significant changes to our offense and defensive systems, and this was the shake-down cruise," said Keene State coach Bob Weiner.  "Colby-Sawyer is having a tough season so far, so this was a good opportunity to see what we're trying to build."

Timothy finished with 11 kills and hit .321 while Olah added nine kills (.389 pct.), three blocks, and two digs.  Stake had eight kills (.211 pct.) and three digs.  Alexis Small finished with a double-double of 31 assists and 12 digs.

Ally Majenski finished with eight kills (.150 pct.) to pace Colby-Sawyer.  Mollberg had six and swung at a .235 clip, while Brooke Patnode had 20 assists, but the Chargers fell to 1-4 at home and have dropped 13 of their first 15 matches.

Service Aces

• Timothy has finished with double-digit kills in four of the last seven matches and has 94 on the season.
• KSC has won eight straight in the series and is 17-14 all-time vs. Colby-Sawyer, 8-4 on the road.
• The Owls' .304 attack percentage as a team was over 60 points higher than their previous season-best (.241).

Up Next

• Keene State returns home to host Eastern Connecticut State University (8-4, 2-0 LEC) for a Little East Conference match on Saturday, September 30 at 12:00 p.m.  The Owls also take on Framingham State University (11-2, 1-0 MASCAC) at 4:00.
• Colby-Sawyer is off for a week until a meeting with Salem State University (4-5, 0-1 MASCAC) in Massachusetts on Wednesday, October 4 at 6:00 p.m.