WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The Plymouth State University women's volleyball team came back from a set down to win the final two sets and complete an undefeated Little East Conference regular season with a five-set victory over Eastern Connecticut State University Saturday afternoon at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
Plymouth (22-1, 8-0 LEC) wins its first outright LEC regular-season title after sharing titles in 2005, 2011 and 2019. Eastern (14-7, 4-3 LEC) had a five-match winning streak ended and falls into a four-way tie for second place with Western Connecticut, Keene State College and UMass Boston.
Plymouth won by scores of 25-19, 15-25, 18-25, 25-16, 15-9 over Eastern and later in the day posted 25-13, 27-25, 25-20 non-conference victories over Wheaton College. Eastern lost in four sets to Wheaton, 12-25, 25-14, 21-25, 16-25.
Plymouth was picked for a fourth-place finish in the coaches' pre-season poll while the Warriors were the pre-season favorite.
The top six teams in the nine-team conference qualify for the LEC tournament which gets underway with first-round games Nov. 2. The top two finishers receive first-round byes.
Trailing 2-sets-to-1, Plymouth took the momentum and the lead for good, 12-8, in the fourth set by scoring five straight points on service, attack and ball-handling errors by Eastern and kills from Natalie Gravelle (Portsmouth, NH and Nora Ryan (Groton). In the decisive fifth set, the Panthers again reeled off five points in a row on three Eastern attack errors and a ball-handling error and a kill from Emilee Flanagan (Milton, NH).
It marked the second straight time that the Panthers have beaten the Warriors in five sets at Geissler Gymnasium, following a 2019 LEC semifinal victory over Eastern after they had been swept by the Warriors at Geissler Gym five days earlier.
In a battle of two of the top offensive players in the conference, Plymouth's Lilli Stogner (Weare, NH) had 18 kills and a .341 attack percentage and Eastern's
Anna Barry (Andover) 24 kills and a .528 attack percentage.
Ryan followed Stogner with 16 kills and attacked at .281 while Alexa Price (Moultonborough, NH) had 45 assists, Flanagan six of her team's 18 blocks, Lindsey Sanderson (Gilford, NH) and Imalay Rodriguez Martinez (Juncos, P.R) four service aces each and Marissa Plaza (Folsom, CA) 14 digs.
For Eastern,
Abby Stern (Manchester) followed Barry with 11 kills and also had a .970 reception percentage on 33 attempts and 22 digs,
Meg Verizzi (Lebanon) collected 47 assists and
Paula Perez (Caguas, P.R.) and
Alaetra Long (Lincoln, NE) had 14 and 12 digs, respectively.
Wheaton defeated Eastern for the fourth straight time. Emily Hickey (Kennebunk, ME) had 15 kills and attacked at .333 for the Lyons. Sophie Wilhelm (Saunderstown, RI) had 21 digs and Adara Hamilton (Mercer Island, WA) 16, Bailey Madrzyk (Barrington, IL) five of her team's 16 blocks and Hannah George (Duxbury, MA) and Zoe Franz (Noblesville, IN) combined for 34 assists. Barry led Eastern with 14 kills but attacked at only .158 for the Warriors, who attacked at .139 as a team. Perez, the libero, led the Warriors with 20 digs. Verizzi had 35 assists.
In a set where Plymouth never led by more than three points, the Panthers got consecutive kills from Stogner to break a tie and close out the two-point, second-set win over Wheaton that positioned Plymouth for the sweep. Stogner and Ryan each had nine kills and Flanagan eight in the balanced PSU attack and the trio combined to attack at .396. Price had 32 assists, Ryan four blocks and Plaza ten digs. For Wheaton, Hamilton led the Lyons with 11 digs, Franz and George combined on 29 assists and Wilhelm had ten digs.
Eastern hosts New England College Tuesday at 6 p.m. in a non-conference match and closes out the LEC regular season Saturday at UMass Dartmouth.
