PLYMOUTH, N.H. – With the opportunity to take a major step toward winning its first outright Little East Conference regular-season championship in 16 years, the Eastern Connecticut State University women's volleyball team fell flat in a three-set loss to Plymouth State University in a battle of the conference leaders Saturday afternoon at Foley Gymnasium.
 
Eastern (14-8, 5-2 LEC) had beaten Plymouth (18-5, 7-1 LEC) the last three times the teams had met at Plymouth – including in last year's LEC semifinals --  but made only one of three sets competitive Saturday, losing 16-25, 25-27, 15-25 and handing the Panthers their second straight LEC regular-season title. Eastern was ranked first in the LEC pre-season coaches' poll, Plymouth second.
 
The top two teams in the final standings earn first-round LEC tournament byes, with the third and fourth seeds hosting first-round tournament games Nov. 1. Eastern entered the day a half-game behind conference-leading Plymouth in second place, but the loss drops it into a three-way tie for second with the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Keene State College, all at 5-2. A victory over visiting UMass Dartmouth next Saturday would, unofficially, give the Warriors the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye (Eastern holds the tie-breaker over Keene in the event the teams finish in a two-way tie for second). An Eastern loss and wins by Keene (over Rhode Island College) and Western Connecticut (over the University of Southern Maine) would leave those three teams in a tie for third place, with the loser of the tie-breaker playing a first-round road match.
 
After losing the first set against Plymouth, Eastern led by four points early in the second set but the score was tied five times in the late stages. The Warriors had the serve with set point in its grasp, but a service error tied the match and gave the ball back to Plymouth, with Lilli Stogner getting a kill and Eastern delivering an attack error that gave the Panthers the victory and a 2-0 lead.
 
Eastern followed the Plymouth loss by being swept by Regis College, 17-25, 22-25, 16-25, where the Warriors attacked under .200 in consecutive matches on the same day for the first time this year.
 
Against Plymouth, Little East kill and attack percentage leader Anna Barry (Andover) led both teams with 11 kills with a .364 attack percentage. Sophomore Bella Johnson (Marlborough) added eight kills, senior libero Paula Perez (Caguas, P.R.) 14 digs, sophomore Cassie Parmelee (East Berlin) three service aces and ten digs, and senior setter Meg Verizzi (Lebanon) 24 assists and ten digs.