KEENE, N.H. – The Keene State College women's volleyball team flipped an 18-16 second set deficit into leads of 21-18 and 23-21, but Plymouth State University scored the final four points of that frame and then dominated the third set as they went on to post a 3-0 sweep (25-18, 25-23, 25-13) of the Owls in Little East Conference action Wednesday night at Spaulding Gymnasium.
Postgame Interview (Jacob Girard)
The Owls (9-14) fell to 1-5 in league play and are currently in seventh place in the nine-team standings. They will close the conference slate with matchups against last-place University of Southern Maine this weekend and a critical meeting against sixth-place Rhode Island College next weekend.
Tonight's match turned late in a second set that saw the two teams exchange leads. An ace by
Marina Miller put KSC ahead 13-10, but the Panthers ran off an 8-3 burst to jump in front by two (18-16). The Owls hit back with five straight punctuated by a setter dump from
Alexis Small to take a 21-18 edge and get the crowd involved, forcing a Panthers timeout. KSC still nursed leads of 22-19 and 23-21 on another swing by Miller, but Plymouth scored the final four points to hand the Owls a tough setback.
Down 2-0 in the match, Keene State's 5-4 lead early in the fourth set did not last long, as the visitors tallied eight of the next nine points to surge in front 12-6. The Owls never got closer than four again, and once they did at 13-9, they allowed the next seven in a row to fall behind by double-figures and the Panthers cruised from there.
KSC hit .000 (seven kills, seven errors) in the final set, and missed a big chance in the second set when they limited PSU to .048 attacking (11 kills, nine errors). However, the Owls hit at just .075 in that frame themselves and were outhit in the match overall .195 to .073. Keene State has hit less than .100 in four of their last five matches and is 0-8 when doing so on the season. In fact, their lowest hitting percentage of the season in a win was .167 against Westfield State University at Springfield College on August 30.
The Owls connected at a modest .147 clip in the opening frame, but saw the Panthers pull away from a 12-11 margin with a 5-1 push, after which they were never seriously threatened. KSC could not control PSU's attack in the first, as they began the night by racking up 15 kills and hit .300 to take the early upper hand.
It marked Plymouth's first win in Keene since 2016. Since, they had lost five straight at Spaulding Gymnasium and won only one set (1-15). Keene State leads the all-time series 24-20, but has lost the last two.
Miller paced KSC with eight kills (.138 pct.) and added seven digs, while
Molly Wetherbee had six kills and hit .333.
Nora Ryan led Plymouth State with 10 kills on 21 attempts, hitting .333, while Emma Hampton had nine spikes to just one error (.348 pct.).
The Owls travel to the University of Southern Maine (5-18, 0-5 LEC) on Saturday (October 26) for a tri-match that starts at 12:00 p.m. KSC also takes on Maine Maritime Academy (10-9, 6-0 NAC) at 2:00 p.m.
