Box Score HARTFORD, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University women's volleyball team bounced back after allowing the first four points of the fifth set – getting late service aces from junior Leah Sopneski (Deep River) and sophomore Mckenzie Maneggia (Andover) – to defeat Trinity College in the opening game of the Trinity College Invitational Friday night at Ray Oosting Gymnasium.
After breezing through the preliminaries of its schedule, Eastern (5-0) passed its first real test of the season by squeezing past Trinity (0-1) for the second straight year at the Trinity Invitational after losing its previous 11 straight at the hands of the Bantams.
Eastern won its 13th straight set this season in the opener against Trinity, 25-16, dropped its first two of the season (20-25, 17-25) to fall back by a game before rallying to tie the match with a 25-18 victory, then surviving in the decisive set, 15-11.
Eastern tied the match at two games apiece with the fourth-set victory. The Warriors never trailed after giving up the opening point in that match, but worked hard to maintain the upper hand after the Bantams sliced the Eastern lead to four, 21-17.
Following the hard-fought fourth-set victory, Eastern got out slowly in the decisive fifth set – allowing the first four points – but surged back to tie the set, 10-10, on Sopneski's only ace of the match. Freshman Lauren Notholt (Milford) followed with an off-balance, cross-court kill – her seventh of the match without an error – go push the Warriors into its first lead. Trinity tied the match, 11-11, on an Eastern service error before the Warriors ran off the final four points for the win.
Freshman Alaetra Long (Lincoln, NE) beat the block on a pass from senior Amanda Tourjee (Waterford) to give Eastern the lead for good, 12-11, and Maneggia then served her only ace of the match to make it 13-11 as Trinity called a timeout. Out of the timeout, senior Carly Balskus (Hebron) had a kill off a Maneggia serve to move the Warriors to within one of match point, and a Trinity attack error soon after capped the comeback.
Long led Eastern with 12 kills, Stern followed with 11 (each had 54 attempts) and Notholt and Balskus chipped in seven each, with Notholt attacking at .259. Maneggia (10), Tourjee (9) and Sopneski (7) shared the assist load, while Notholt had three block solos and four assits, junior Jackie Orlowski (Woodstock) and sophomore Lydia Niderno (Willington) adding a solo and four assist each, and Balskus two solos and two assists.
Defensively, the Warriors totaled 84 digs, with senior libero Michelle Valliere (Lebanon) topping all players with 24, Stern 16, Tourjee 14, and Long 13.
Colette Scheffers led Trinity with 17 kills and 16 digs, lefty Hanna Engstrom 12 kills with a .440 attack percentage, Rachel Underwood 11 kills and 15 digs, and freshman Jessica Yang 44 assists.
After getting off the court just before 10 p.m. Friday, Eastern to Stan Ogrodnik Court less than 12 hours later to face Clark University at 10 a.m. and Westfield State University at 2 p.m. Clark defeated Westfield in four sets in Friday's first game.
Eastern holds a 25-12 series lead over Clark, but has not beaten the Cougars since 2011, a run of six straight losses. The Warriors bring a 15-0 record all-time against Westfield State.
