WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Junior Allie Luppi (Tewksbury, MA) and sophomore Adrianna Mihalek (Woodbury) combined to handle 50 opposing serves without an error as the Eastern Connecticut State University women's volleyball team won three straight sets after an opening loss en route to a 3-1 non-conference victory over Johnson & Wales University in the 2014 opener for both programs Saturday afternoon at Francis E. Geissler. Set scorers were 20-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-19.

Playing its first match under interim head coach Megan Silver Droesch, Eastern bounced back from an opening-set loss, getting a kills from Mihalek and junior Bry Kelly (Dunbarton, NH) to score the final two points in the second-set win and scoring three straight points early in the important third set en route to its third straight win over the Wildcats in this series.

Droesch had served as an assistant under former head coach Peter Maneggia for three years before taking over the head coaching position on an interim basis this summer.  "We've been working really hard in the pre-season and it's exciting to get off to a 1-0 start," noted Droesch, who played collegiately at the University of Connecticut. In speaking with Eastern Director of Broadcasting Nick Aconfora after the match, Droesch noted that that the players were "generally nervous at first, with 14 underclassmen. We have been harping on the fact that we wanted them to be aggressive. When the aggression took hold, they dialed it back a little bit and found a rhythm."

 At left: Adrianna Mihalek (2) and Megan Macomber (far right) celebrate an early point against Johnson & Wales Saturday. (Photos by Liam Murphy)

In the crucial third set, Mihalek had five kills and freshman Sarah Leonard (Southborough, MA) had three digs and five assists to put the Warriors in control of the match. The Warriors completed the victory in the fourth set when they scored seven straight points to move out to a 10-5 lead and later added three in a row to take a 23-18 advantage after the visitors pulled to within two.

Led by Luppi and Mihalek, Eastern commited only three serve receive errors the entire match. Luppi was perfect on 29 tries and Mihalek had no errors on 21. Junior Melissa Godere (Norwich) was also successful on ten of 11 reception attempts.

Last year's Little East Conference Rookie-of-the-Year, Mihalek led both teams with 14 kills, with sophomore Ashley Adams (Mystic) adding 11 kills and a .240 attack percentage. Adams contributed four of her kills on eight tries in the deciding set. Luppi led Eastern with ten digs, Godere adding nine and Leonard and classmate Amanda Tourjee (Waterford) combined for 33 assists.

Senior Alyssa Drapeau led the Wildcats with 13 kills and 15 digs, junior Kellen Tensen adding 12 digs and 29 assists.

Eastern hosts Clark University Tuesday at 7 p.m.