LEWISTON, Maine – First year outside hitter Marina Miller combined for 15 kills on 41 total attempts to continue a strong start to her collegiate career as the Keene State College women's volleyball team split a tri-match at Bates College on Saturday, falling to the host Bobcats 3-1 (11-25, 18-25, 25-21, 12-25) before beating Dean College in straight sets (25-19, 25-15, 25-15).

KSC (4-2) piled up 20 aces to win the nightcap over the Bulldogs, outhitting them .154 to .074 in the process.  Theresa Norris finished with six aces and Grace Christian five, and the Owls have 67 as a team through six matches (11.2 per match) after averaging just 6.7 per match a season ago.

Serving helped the Owls both start strong and polish off their win over Dean, as they racked up a whopping nine in the third set in a 25-15 win after recording seven in the opening frame.  The first would prove to be the toughest for KSC to shake the pesky Bulldogs, who led for most of the early going including a 15-14 advantage following an Owl blocking error.  However, three straight attacking miscues followed by three straight Delia Ryan aces made it a 6-0 run, and Keene State was in control from there, going up 23-17 on a Molly Wetherbee kill and Christian ace.

Big runs over the next two sets helped the Owls gain breathing room in both.  In the second, leading 14-12, KSC ran off an 8-0 burst that featured three aces by Norris to take a double-digit lead and they wrapped up a 25-15 set win five points later to take a 2-0 match lead.  In the third, the Owls turned an 8-8 tie into a 17-9 advantage by running off a 9-1 surge, after which Dean never got closer than eight again.  The aces rescued the Owls in the third frame, as they otherwise posted only three kills and hit .000.
Wetherbee finished with six kills and just one error, hitting .417.  Stephanie Olah had five kills (.214 pct.), and Miller posted a team-best seven spikes.  Alexis Small added 21 assists and six digs.

The win helped KSC move on from a 3-1 loss to Bates to start the day in which the Owls were battling uphill the whole time.  The Bobcats sprinted out to a 25-11 victory in the first set, hitting .455 (11 kills, 1 error) as a team while the Owls had as many kills as errors.  Despite being outhit .238 to .143 in the second, Bates pulled away as the set went on to take a 25-18 victory in the second.  Trailing 2-0 in the match, KSC engineered a massive comeback in the third after they trailed 21-13, scoring the final 12 points consecutively in the set, the last four on kills (two by Miller, one by Wetherbee, and one by Small).  KSC's only lead up to that point the frame had been 1-0.

Unfortunately for the Owls, the momentum was fleeting, as Bates controlled the fourth set mostly because KSC hit -.212 and made 10 attacking errors on 33 attempts (the Bobcats hit only .071 and had eight kills and six errors).  The home team sprinted out to a 9-2 edge in what wound up being the final frame, and KSC never got closer than four after that.

"We came out a little slow after the three-hour bus ride and every aspect of the game needed improvement," said KSC head coach Jacob Girard.  "We made some adjustments in the second set, played much better, and snuck out the third with some great serving from Grace Christian, but overall had a hard time keeping up with the serving and attacking power of Bates."

"The Dean game gave us a chance for a mental reset and we applied pressure from our servers.  Dean played very scrappy on defense and had some smart shots offensively, but we came out on top with a more consistent offense."

Miller continues to lead KSC in kills, posting 51 over her first six collegiate matches while hitting .205.

Keene State returns home to host Clark University (3-3) on Tuesday, September 10 at 7:00 p.m.