WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – In a match which featured 40 ties and 20 lead changes, the Western Connecticut State University women's volleyball team erased  a late five point deficit in the first set and went on to a four-set Little East Conference decision over Eastern Connecticut State University Tuesday night at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.

Western won by scores of 26-24, 24-26, 25-23, 25-21.

Eastern (16-10, 3-3 LEC) scored the first four points of the match and led 22-17 before Western (17-10, 3-3 LEC) rallied for a two-point victory. Each of the first first three sets were decided by two points before the Colonials broke the eighth and final tie of the fourth set to  defeat the Warriors for the fourth set straight time.

With an opportunity to move into a two-way tie for third place with Keene State College, Eastern instead falls into a two-way tie for fourth place with Western with one LEC regular-season match remaining. Saturday, Eastern visits Keene State and Western visits the University of Southern Maine. The top two finishers in the final standings gain first-round tournament byes while the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds host first-round match.

Western managed to pull out the first-set victory despite attacking at 0.43 and got better as the match wore on, attacking at .156 on the evening as compared to Eastern's .115.

After the teams split two-point decisions in the first two sets, Eastern held a 23-21 lead in the important third set following a Western attack error. Western came out of a timeout, however, to score the final four points, the final two points coming on kills from Karissa Smith.

Western  put the match away by scoring five straight points to move out to a 21-15 lead in the fourth set. Mikayla Aubry and Alyssa Dam contributed kills around an Eastern timeout and setter Danielle Kaminsky put a mis-direction on the floor and followed with a kills to push the Western lead to six, 21-15.

Cady Cordes, Smith and Dam combined for 34 kills for Western, with Kaminsky attacking at .556 on nine attempts and totallilng 41 assists. Smith led Western with 26 digs, Cordes adding 25 and Dam had six blocks.

Senior outside hitter Adrianna Mihalek (Woodbury), who took over as Eastern's all-time kills leader Saturday, led all players with 24 kills, attacking at .310. Junior outside Carly Balskus (Hebron) added 12 kills. Sophomore setter Leah Sopneski (Deep River) led the Warriors with 22 assists and junior libero Michelle Valliere (Lebanon) topped Eastern with 28 digs, senior defensive specialist Nina Zimmitti (East Hampton) adding ten digs. As a team, the Warriors commited only three errors on 94 serve receptions.

Mihalek was credited with five digs, making her only the second player in program history with as many as 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs.

Eastern hosts Medgar Evers College Friday at 6 p.m. in a non-conference match.