DANBURY, Conn. – It was déjà vu all over again Tuesday night when fourth-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University upended fifth-seeded Western Connecticut State University in the first round of the Little East Conference women's volleyball tournament at Feldman Arena. Scores were 25-22, 25-21, 18-25, 22-25, 15-8.
 
The seeds, round, location and five-set outcome all repeated themselves from a year ago as Eastern (15-9) advanced to the LEC tournament semifinals for the seventh time in eight years under head coach Megan Silver-Droesch.
 
The Warriors will face regular-season champion and top-seeded Plymouth State University in the semifinals Thursday at 6 p.m. at Foley Gymnasium, with a second consecutive trip to the tournament finals on the line. Against Plymouth (20-6/9-1 at home), Eastern is hoping against a déjà vu experience which netted it a three-game loss to the Panthers in the regular-season matchup ten days ago.
 
The Eastern-Plymouth winner will meet the winner of Thursday's other semifinal-round game in the final Saturday at the site of the highest remaining seed. In the other semifinal Thursday, sixth-seeded and defending champion University of Massachusetts Boston visits second-seeded Keene State College Thursday at 7 p.m. UMass Boston upset third-seeded University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in five sets at the Tripp Athletic Center. The Beacons have reached the tournament final 11 times in the last 12 years, winning ten times.
 
Against WestConn (14-11), now 10-2 at home, Eastern re-grouped after watching its two-games-to-none lead evaporate that forced – like last year – a deciding fifth game.
 
Eastern scored the first eight points of the decisive fifth set – despite two timeouts by the Wolves -- behind the serving of first-year player Jenna Loring (Richmond, RI), and Western never got closer than five points thereafter. With Loring serving seven straight points, Eastern recorded six consecutive kills without an error – two each by senior All-America Anna Barry (Andover) and first-year player Taylor Thompson (Cornwall, NY) and one by sophomore Bella Johnson (Marlborough) and one by senior libero Paula Perez (Caguas, P.R.).
 
In that final set, the Warriors attacked at .409 – committing only one error – while WestConn made four attack errors for a -.087 percentage.
 
Ranked sixth nationally in attack percentage, Barry had 16 kills and a .382 percentage in the match, with Thompson following with 12 kills and Johnson and junior Paige Savitsky (Centereach, NY) adding eight each. Senior setter Meg Verizzi (Lebanon) set for 45 assists and Perez (19), Verizzi (17), Savitsky (11) and Loring (10) all recording double-digit digs. Senior Nayeli Cruz Martinez (Toa Baja, P.R.), who left Saturday's LEC home loss to UMass Dartmouth with injury in the first set, returned against WestConn to chip in seven kills and three service aces.