Women's Volleyball 10/23/2012 12:00:00 AM

Wilson is the Solution in Eastern Women's Volleyball's Little East Conference Victory

NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. -- Eastern Connecticut State University's four-set Little East Conference women's volleyball match against Massachusetts Dartmouth Tuesday night followed virtually the same pattern throughout: the Warriors would fall behind early in three of the four sets and later give ground late, but in-between, just fed the ball to senior middle hitter Katie Wilson (Pittsburg, CA).

The 6-foot-2 inch Wilson continued to dominate the opposition at the Francis Tripp Athletic Center Tuesday night, amassing a career-high 27 kills on 59 attempts as the Warriors secured fourth place in the final LEC standings with 25-17, 25-21, 19-25, 25-16 victories that provides them with their first conference playoff home match since the third-seeded Warriors swept sixth-seeded UMass Dartmouth in 2008.

After losing its first three conference matches, Eastern (16-12, 4-3 LEC) finished the regular season with four straight triumphs -- losing only two sets in the process -- to finish with at least a share of fourth place and earn the No. 4 seed in next week's conference tournament.

A winner of eight of its last nine matches since losing 11 of its first 19, Eastern will host the No. 5 seed Tuesday night at Francis E. Geissler Gymasnium. The winner of Saturday's Plymouth-Rhode Island College will be seeded fifth. Plymouth, coming off Tuesday night's five-set home upset of previously unbeaten Massachusetts Boston, will share fourth place with Eastern if it downs Rhode Island. The Anchorwomen will finish in a two-way tie for fifrth if they defeat Plymouth Saturday and will warrant the fifth seed based on the head-to-head victory over Plymouth.

Eastern swept Plymouth this past Saturday morning at the Crabtree Classic and has beaten Rhode Island College twice this year, losing just one set.

Against UMass Dartmouth Tuesday night, Wilson sparked the Warriors to a 2-0 lead with 16 kills on 28 attempts with only four errors, then closed out the victory in the fourth set by going 7-for-14 with only one mistake. In the important second-set win, Wilson was 9-for-15 with only two attack error, contributing six straight kills at one point.

Wilson was just as effective defensively by receiving 22 serves without an error, collecting a team-high 18 digs and making a team-high five blocks.

As a team, the Warriors came up with 15 blocks and commited only one reception error through the first three sets before finishing with four.

Junior libero Erynn Miller (Stratford) followed with 17 digs and sophomores Jess Patrizi (Beacons Falls) and Allie Henry (Middletown) combined for 41 assists. Freshman Brooke Curran (Chelmsford, MA), a 6-foot-2 inch middle hitter, added four blocks, junior Nicki Gasch (New Fairfield) and senior Danielle Bourne (Branford), combined for 15 kills, and freshman Allie Luppi (Tewksbury, MA) submitted three straight service aces to give the team the lead for good early in the second set.