KEENE, N.H. – The Keene State College women's volleyball team kept themselves alive by pulling out an extra points victory in the third set and trimmed an eight-point fourth set deficit to two late, but extremely slow starts in half of the sets on the evening proved to be too much to overcome as the Owls fell to two-time defending Little East Conference champion University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (25-14, 25-20, 24-26, 25-22) on Friday night at Spaulding Gymnasium.

Postgame Interview (Coach Girard)

KSC (6-10, 0-2 LEC) got an impressive 13-kill performance from Colleen Fraser and racked up 27 kills to just five errors over the final two sets after 17 kills and 11 errors over the first two, but ultimately was climbing back from a deficit all night.  The Corsairs (11-6, 2-0 LEC) used a pair of timely runs in each of the first two sets to pull away and then used a fast start in the fourth to win their fifth straight – though won for just the second time on an opponent's home court this season.

The Owls could not contain the powerful duo of Allison Pate (20 kills) and Olivia Seutter (18 kills), who made just four errors and hit .455 on the night while accounting for 63 percent of their team's kills.  Twelve service errors and a minus-26 mark in digs also doomed KSC, who remains winless (0-4) at Spaulding Gymnasium this season.  Tonight, however, was the Owls' best offensive performance at home – hitting .179 to better last Friday's .139 mark.  The previous two marks prior to those were both sub-.100.  KSC might have hit even higher if it weren't for Emily Pogorelec's match-high 25 digs.

In the opening set, KSC scratched back from a 5-2 deficit to tie it at nine and eventually scored three straight to go in front 12-11 on consecutive blocks, both involving Marina Miller.  However, a kill by Pate and ace by Pogorelec put UMD right back ahead – and wound up kicking off an avalanche for the visitors to end the set, finishing on a 14-2 burst after facing their only deficit.  KSC took their first timeout at 15-12, but Pate and Seutter kills combined to account for three more in a row and the Owls were never in the set again, falling 25-14.

Keene State needed a very early timeout in the second to regroup after finding themselves down 8-4, and it seemed to be effective as they reeled off a nine of the next 15 points culminating with a kill by Bartels and ace from Alexis Small to get within 14-13.  But as happened most of the evening, UMass-Dartmouth always formulated some kind of answer.  A block by Maddie Carter denied Fraser and the Owls from tying it, and after a kill by Gigi Stake brought the home team within one once more, Seutter fired down three straight of her own to make it 18-14.  KSC was never closer than four again as they stared down a 2-0 match hole.

The Owls played from in front while taking the third, opening a 12-8 advantage with three straight points that included a kill by Small and block by Fraser.  The visitors answered with a 7-3 push to tie it at 15, but this time KSC snuffed out their momentum, hitting back with a 6-1 push to go in front by five.  The Corsairs forced extra points with points on four of the next five rallies only to see Annaliese Rudberg and Miller finish off kills to force a fourth set.

Any Owl momentum was quickly paused in what turned out the be the final frame as Pate and Seutter combined for five kills over the opening eight points as UMass-Dartmouth opened with a 10-3 sprint.  KSC chopped their deficit to four at 11-7, but the Corsairs remained well in command as kills from three different people with an ace mixed in pushed their lead back to seven (15-8) before it grew as high as eight twice.  The Owls answered with a sequence of their own that included an ace by Ryan along with kills from three different people to make it 20-16, only to surrender the next three to tumble down by seven again.  KSC had one final push, scoring five straight to make it 23-21 to force a Dartmouth timeout, but Ashley Serverius brought the visitors to match point and they wrapped up only their fourth win at Spaulding Gymnasium in program history two points later on a Carter kill.

KSC has lost three straight and four of six overall to the Corsairs after beating them 16 consecutive times from 2005 through 2021.

UMD has been a resurgent program under head coach Justin Turco, winning LEC championships in both 2023 and 2024 while he has compiled a 73-28 record.  The Corsairs were 80 games under .500 (37-117) in conference action from 1998 through 2019.

The Owls have won league championships in 2008 and 2022.

KSC is back in action with a pair of road conference games this week, beginning at Plymouth State University (11-4, 1-0 LEC) on Wednesday, October 8 at 5:00 p.m.  The Panthers have won nine straight this year and have gone 92-19 overall including 30-2 in the conference regular season over the last four years not including this one, but have no conference tournament championships to show for it.  The Owls denied them in 2022, rallying from two match deficits including a remarkable comeback from 23-12 down in the second to win in five sets on the road.