CASTLETON, Vt. – Gigi Stake notched her ninth double-double while Colleen Fraser added eight kills as the duo combined to hit .234 to lead the Keene State College women's volleyball team to a 3-0 Little East Conference sweep of Vermont State University Castleton on Wednesday night at Glenbrook Gymnasium.

The win is KSC's (11-11, 3-3 LEC) fourth in a row and seventh in the last 10 matches, moving them to .500 for the first time since they were 2-2 following a 2-0 stat.  It vaults them into fifth place alone for the moment, ahead of idle Western Connecticut State University (2-3 LEC).  The Owls can lock up a playoff spot with a road win over Rhode Island College (0-5 LEC) on Saturday and shift their sights to trying to earn a quarterfinal home match when WestConn visits Keene in the regular season finale November 8.

Tonight, the Owls posted their third sweep during their season-long four-game winning streak, coming through late in two of the three sets to get the job done.

KSC sprinted out of the gates in the first, opening leads of 5-0 and 7-1 before the improving Spartans (11-12, 0-5 LEC) rallied to take a 16-15 lead.  The home team led twice more by a point, but a kill from Lauren Bender tied it at 18 and a swing from Katie Taylor a few points later made it 21-19.  The most crucial stretch came with the Owls up one, as a kill by Sarah Bartels, ace by Delia Ryan, and a combined block by Annaliese Rudberg and Bartels made it 24-20.  Ryan's service error extended the set, but Ava Harkins set up Stake for a kill to get the Owls out in front in the match.

Keene State's most commanding set came in the second as they scored eight of the first 11 points to go up five and never trailed.  Castleton came as close as two, but three aces in a four point span from Alexis Small – who recently surpassed 150 for her career – put the Owls up 18-11.  A kill by Taylor and ace by Rudberg pushed the lead to double-digits (22-12) and KSC rolled to a 2-0 match lead on Harkins' ace to end it, the Owls' whopping sixth of the set.

The Spartans gathered all the momentum for nearly half of the third set, opening a 15-5 lead following a 7-1 burst that began with four consecutive kills.  However, KSC rapidly responded by running off an 8-0 run of their own that started with three kills by Stake and an ace by Ryan.  Her second ace in that span made it 15-12 before a lifted ball on a set made it a two-point gap.  It seemed the Spartans were going to ward off the Owls' comeback attempt and force a fourth set – winning a set for only the third time against KSC in eight meetings – after Jocelyn Ray made it 19-14 with a kill, but Bender and Fraser had spikes in a 5-0 run that tied it.  The Owls took their first lead since it was 1-0 with a Fraser kill that made it 21-20, and Taylor and Bender followed that up with a big block.  Fraser found the floor again one rally later to put KSC up three, and the Owls went on to close out a match win on Taylor's kill, improving to 5-4 on the road.

"There was some great serving from us," said Owls head coach Jacob Girard.  "Lexi Small added five to her recent achievement.  It was a great day for our pin hitters.  When we hit in system they could not stop us.  We did struggle out of system little and I have to say Castleton had some great serves that got us out of system, but our strength of in-system attacking and serving helped us tonight."

Keene State improved to 8-0 all-time against the Spartans including 5-0 at Glenbrook Gymnasium.  However, despite still being in search of their first-ever Little East Conference match win, Castleton has 21 combined wins over the last two seasons after going 26-98 overall from 2018-2023.  The Spartans had a 2-0 match lead at home against Eastern Connecticut on October 4 but fell in five sets.

KSC outhit Castleton .135 to .074 and was plus-11 (59-48) in digs.  Stake finished with 10 kills on .261 hitting and 14 digs while Fraser added eight kills (.208 pct.) and four digs.  Ryan led with 15 digs while Small had 17 assists, nine digs, and five aces.

The home team was paced by nine kills from Ray (.121 pct.).

Keene State travels to face Rhode Island College (10-11, 0-5 LEC) on Saturday, October 25 for an 11:00 a.m. start.  KSC has won six straight against the Anchorwomen.