PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Since the beginning of the 2022 season, Plymouth State University has lost six matches to Little East Conference opponents – three in the regular season and three in the postseason.  Half of those defeats are now against the Keene State College women's volleyball team after the Owls ventured to Foley Gymnasium on Wednesday night and downed the Panthers in four sets, handing them their first home loss of the season and ending their 10-match winning streak.

KSC (7-10, 1-2 LEC) took the opening set 25-22 before dropping the second 25-20, but rebounded by pulling out two narrow set victories in the third and fourth, scoring the final three of the third to break a 25-22 tie before rallying from a 20-16 deficit in the fourth thanks to a well-timed 9-3 burst to end the night.

Colleen Fraser had an impressive effort to lead the Owl offense, finishing with 11 kills to just two errors, hitting .250 on the night from the outside.  Sarah Bartels added 10 kills while hitting .167.  After having just one kill over the opening three sets, Gigi Stake fired down six kills on six attempts in the decisive fourth as KSC won for the second time in the last three meetings between the two teams at Foley Gymnasium – the other being a memorable victory in the 2022 Little East Conference championship.

The win over the Panthers (12-5, 2-1 LEC) in the regular season at Spaulding Gymnasium that season acted as somewhat of a catalyst to jump-start an Owl team that had played a tough schedule to begin the season but nonetheless sputtered to a 3-12 start.  Perhaps this year could act as the same?

Time will tell, but on one of the first fall-feeling nights of the season, the Owls put some of their initial frustrations of the conference schedule aside to pick up a very important victory ahead of another road match Saturday.  KSC had opened their LEC slate with home losses to Eastern Connecticut State University in five – unable to hold leads of 5-1 and 8-5 in the final set – and two-time defending league tournament champion University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in four each of the past two Fridays.  In the match against the Corsairs, KSC overcame a slow start to battle in the final three sets but could not complete a late comeback after getting as close as two in the fourth.

Tonight, the Owls polished off some comebacks and were rewarded.  In the first, five kills in a six-point span helped KSC flip a 6-3 deficit into a 9-6 lead and the visitors never trailed again, going up four on a pair of occasions shortly thereafter.  Plymouth did erase an 18-14 deficit by running off four straight, but the Owls got swings from Marina Miller and Bartels to kick off an answering run of 6-0 to bring up set point.  The Panthers forced a KSC timeout with four in a row to make it 24-22, but Miller put the Owls ahead in the match with a kill off Bartels' assist.

PSU used an 8-1 burst in the second – the only set they won – to turn a 13-12 deficit into a 20-14 lead, forcing KSC to burn both of their timeouts, and eventually held on to even the match after the Owls got as close as two.

Keene State has sometimes struggled with pivotal swing sets this season – but not on this night.  A pair of blocks and two aces helped the Owls open an 11-6 lead in the third, and it was still 17-14 KSC when Bartels and Katie Taylor stuffed Alice Borriello Diaz. Plymouth rallied for a 19-18 lead – their first since it was 2-1 – to force an Owl timeout, but the visitors kept clawing, retying the set three times before a Grace Christian ace gave them the lead back at 22-21.  Ella Koelb, a two-time transfer from Endicott College and Southern New Hampshire University who led the Panthers with 17 kills, tied it at 22 with a spike, but they misfired on her next attempt and the Owls closed with a flourish as Taylor fired down a Harkins pass from the middle before teaming with Bartels to block Boriello Diaz to notch a 25-22 set win.

The fourth set was likely the wildest in a match that featured 33 ties and 17 lead changes.  Early on, it seemed KSC might post a runaway as they led 6-1 and 8-3 early.  However, Plymouth answered with six in a row to take their initial lead of the frame.  Stake notched two kills in a three-rally span to make it 13-11 KSC, and a spike by Fraser and another ace from Christian later nudged the Owls back in front 16-15.  Plymouth seemed like they were going to force a fifth set when they scored five straight, getting two kills from Sydney Riley followed by two blocks in which she was a part of to take their largest lead.  It did not last long – and in fact the whole lead was gone four points later out of a KSC timeout.  The Panthers led by one twice after that, but a well-timed run of three straight for the Owls that included a Stake kill that put her team ahead (23-22) brought up match point.  Annalyn Cahill fought it off once with a kill, but Harkins set Bartels to get her into double-digits in style as KSC finished off their first conference victory of 2025.

"It was a good night by all," said Owls head coach Jake Girard.  "Good setting from Ava and Lexi (Small), good blocking from our middles Rud and KT.  Our outsides Marina and Gigi passed well along with Delia.  Our right sides were more than good, they were incredible.  Colleen and Sarah really led the way offensively and had some great blocks at critical moments.  It was a team victory but Sarah and Colleen played at another level tonight."

In the last two matches against the teams who have both qualified for the LEC championship in each of the last two years, Fraser has compiled 24 kills against just six errors, hitting .247.  The 13 kills marked a career-high and tonight gave her double-digit kill efforts in consecutive matches for the first time in her career.

Delia Ryan led the way with 15 digs, while Small had 16 assists and Harkins 15.  Miller finished with eight kills, seven digs, and three aces.  KSC had 10 aces as a team.

Koelb led Plymouth with 17 kills, 15 assists, and 14 digs, but PSU (who hit .155) fell to 4-4 when hitting lower than .200 on the season.

The Owls get back at it with a road match at the University of Massachusetts-Boston (9-9, 2-0 LEC) on Saturday, October 11 at 1:00 p.m.