KEENE, N.H. – Heading into the day, the Keene State College women's volleyball team's postseason future was pretty certain, with a win giving them the No. 5 seed and a road date against Eastern Connecticut State University and a loss dropping them to the sixth and final spot against three possible opponents. And very quickly into the match, it seemed the No. 5 seed was also off the table.
The Owls (14-13, 3-5 LEC) never led, nor did they get to 20 in any of the three sets as they were swept by Western Connecticut State University (19-6, 5-3 LEC) 25-12, 25-15, 25-17 at Spaulding Gymnasium in a conference match Friday night.
The Wolves, who entered just 4-10 all-time at Spaulding Gymnasium and went between 2009 and 2023 with no wins in Keene, hit a season-best .417 while the Owls attacked at only a .120 clip.
A slow start in the opening set sent KSC spiraling, and they ultimately never put together any threatening runs. The Wolves turned a 7-5 lead into a seven-point gap with a 5-0 burst to gain control in the first set, eventually going up 18-7 as the Owls scored back-to-back points only three times in the frame. KSC would sputter to a lopsided 25-12 set loss – and in this case the stats did not lie, as WestConn compiled 13 kills to just one error to hit .462 while the Owls posted nine kills and made nine errors.
KSC did not score consecutive points in the second set until they found themselves down 20-7 as they were sent into a deep match hole, and the visitors just kept going, running off five points in a row after an Owl service error in the third to take a 7-1 lead, capped by two Julia Stoliker aces.
There were no statistical categories that the home team enjoyed an advantage in, including serving, as they finished with three aces to eight service errors. One of the positive serves came from
Annaliese Rudberg to make it 8-4 in the third, but WestConn immediately scored the next three. Keene State chipped their deficit to as little as three four times, including at 18-15 after a kill by
Sarah Bartels, but two kills and two Jersey Jones aces put the Wolves right back in firm control again, and they closed their regular season with a road sweep to finish 6-5 in true road matches away from Feldman Arena.
The road is where the Owls will be from here on out, beginning next Tuesday with a Little East Conference tournament quarterfinal matchup against a team to be determined after the remainder of the league finishes their slate tomorrow. KSC will take on Plymouth State University if the Panthers fall to the University of Massachusetts-Boston on the road tomorrow. If not, they will battle either the Beacons (if Eastern Connecticut State University beats the University of Southern Maine) or have a rematch with the Wolves (if Southern Maine wins).
Gigi Stake finished with six kills and six digs while hitting .313 to pace the Owls.
Colleen Fraser had five kills, though hit .000, while
Alexis Small had 20 assists but was held without an ace.
Stoliker had 14 kills and hit .355 for WestConn while Sydney Slupatchuk finished with 10 spikes on a .348 clip – those two combining for just four fewer kills than KSC had as a team.
The Owls will enter next week's postseason having won a pair of LEC tournament titles including most recently in 2022, but they have not made it past the quarterfinals in either of the past two seasons.
