KEENE, N.H. – Lily Welch and Kim Gowell combined for 30 kills, 11 digs, and 10 block assists as Bridgewater State University erased a pair of match deficits before spoiling Keene State College's home opener at Spaulding Gymnasium on Tuesday night with a 3-2 victory.
Postgame Interview (Coach Girard)
Keene State (2-2) took the first set 25-20, only to see the Bears (1-0) run away to a 25-9 victory in the second. The Owls erased deficits of 7-2, 12-7, and 14-9 in the third before scoring seven of the final 10 points to retake the match lead, but the home team managed just 12 kills and made 12 attacking errors from that point on to stumble to their second straight loss. Bridgewater State tallied the first five points of the fourth and never trailed, finishing on a 9-3 run after KSC briefly drew within 16-14 following a 4-0 run out of a timeout.
The Owls had a pair of early two-point leads in the fifth set, including at 4-2 after a
Delia Ryan dig turned into a kill on the other side, but the Bears scored four in a row to take a 7-5 edge of their own and never trailed again. A kill by
Annaliese Rudberg and a team block by
Marina Miller and
Katie Taylor made it 8-8 right after the teams switched sides, but Welch fired down a kill to keep her team ahead on the next rally and KSC then made an attack error to fall back behind by two once again. Kills by Ava Crane and Welch bookending the Owls' second timeout put the Bears ahead 12-9 and just three points away from a victory, which they ran off consecutively after Collen Fraser's kill made it a two-point gap for the last time. Consecutive blocks put BSU at match point and Gowell finished it off by powering a ball through the Owls' block and to the ground.
The numbers were never kind to KSC on the evening, who was thoroughly outhit .170 to .020. In their 25-20 opening set win, the Owls racked up 10 kills to just three errors while outhitting Bridgewater .179 to -.081. From that point forward, they compiled 25 kills against 29 errors over the final four frames while the visitors had 43 spikes and 16 miscues. The Bears were also plus-15 in digs - routinely turning broken plays into points – plus-six in total blocks, and plus-two in aces as they opened their season following a 13-10 campaign in which they reached the NCAA tournament thanks to a come-from-behind win over Westfield State University in the MASCAC championship. They were, however, 0-2 against Little East Conference opponents in 2024 (3-2 loss to the University of Massachusetts-Boston, 3-0 loss to Rhode Island College).
KSC's middle of Rudberg (seven kills) and Taylor (six kills) combined for 13 kills against just two errors, while Miller led the Owls overall with eight spikes.
Gigi Stake had 12 digs and Ryan 11, while
Alexis Small had 15 assists and
Ava Harkins 12.
Welch finished with 16 points on a .205 attacking clip, adding nine digs, four aces, one solo block, and seven block assists. She scored nine more points than the next closest person in the match – her teammate Gowell, who had 14 kills and hit .379. Ava Crane finished with 17 digs and Moriah Baptista had 16, while Xin Ai Robinson paced the Bears' offense with 22 assists.
KSC committed a season-high 32 attacking errors, and in the last two matches are plus-one in their kill-to-error ratio.
The Owls travel to Bates College on Saturday for a tri-match against the host Bobcats (0-0; 11:00 a.m.) and the University of New England (1-2; 1:00 p.m.) in Lewiston, Maine.
