BOSTON, Mass. – Colleen Fraser and Marina Miller led the way with eight kills apiece and three Owls had double-digit digs as the Keene State College women's volleyball team won a defensive battle against Simmons University 3-1 in non-conference action at the Holmes Sports Center in the first-ever meeting between the two programs.

Outside of the third set, KSC (6-9) led for most of the match, taking the opening two sets 25-15 and 25-19.  The Sharks stayed alive by winning the third 25-19, but the Owls took the fourth by the same score – the third straight frame with the same exact final.

The Owls never trailed in the first, with the most consequential of the runs traded back-and-forth by each side coming when KSC put up five in a row to expand a 14-13 lead to six.  Simmons only scored two points the rest of the way, and overall surrendered an 11-2 burst to the Owls after putting up three in a row to get within one.  Miller notched three straight kills to bring up set point and Ava Harkins put the finishing touches on the first with an ace, one of 12 on the night for KSC.

Simmons scored the first four of the second set looking to bounce back, but the Owls regained control by hitting back with a 12-4 run that included three aces.  The Sharks never led again in the set, with KSC making it 17-12 on three straight miscues of different varieties by the home team.  Two spikes by Hannah Pridgeon brought Simmons within two (19-17), but points by Miller and Harkins forced a timeout.  Sarah Bartels and Katie Taylor later had kills of their own to make it 23-18, and KSC took a 2-0 match lead by closing on a 5-1 run.

The Sharks ran off 11 points in a row to take a 13-2 lead in the fourth and sprinted to a set win to force a fourth, but appeared to lose momentum late in the frame as the Owls trimmed the 11-point deficit to as little as four before running out of time.

A big 8-1 uprising in the middle portion of the fourth proved critical to helping give KSC their sixth win of the season, turning a 7-6 deficit into a 14-8 lead.  Fraser had three of her eight kills on three straight points and Lauren Bender added one of her own.  A point by Miller a short time later made it 17-10 and the Sharks overall went 14 straight points without a kill.  After it was 14-10, the home team's only points in that span were from three service errors and a bad set.  They had only one kill for the remainder of the set.  Despite that they did get their deficit down to 22-19, but Annaliese Rudberg blocked Kira Buonopane for a big point and the Owls closed the match with an exclamation point – two straight aces by Alexis Small.

KSC outhit the Sharks .098 to -.020.

"It was an awesome defensive match from both sides," said Owls head coach Jake Girard.  "We had 70 digs as a team with Marina having 18, Delia with 17, and Alexis with 14.  I think we created great pressure with our serving…hit all the right numbers especially Alexis with seven aces."
"Offensively, it was a slower night for our team," he added.  "Our sideout percentage in sets one, two, and four all were above 60 percent through and we minimized our attacking errors better than Simmons did."

The Owls return home to host two-time defending Little East Conference champion University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (10-6, 1-0 LEC) on Friday night (October 3) at 6:00 p.m.