PLYMOUTH, N.H. – A year ago, the Eastern Connecticut State University women's volleyball team defeated higher seeds Western Connecticut State University and Plymouth State University on the road to reaching the championship game of the Little East Conference tournament for the third time in seven years.
This year, hoping to follow that same path to the final, fifth-seeded Eastern (15-10) conquered the first leg with a five-set first-round win over fourth-seeded Western Connecticut on Tuesday, but came up just short Thursday against top-seeded Plymouth State University and was eliminated in three close sets with a season-ending 25-19, 25-22, 28-26 loss at Foley Gymnasium.
With its tenth home win against a single loss, regular-season champion Plymouth State (21-6) will host the tournament final Saturday against second-seeded Keene State College, which eliminated sixth-seeded and defending champion University of Massachusetts Boston in four sets Thursday. Plymouth advances to its eighth final, looking for its second title – first since defeating Eastern in 2004. The Panthers have been beaten by UMass Boston in each of its last four finals appearances, most recently in 2019. Plymouth and Keene are meeting the final for the first time. Keene is looking for its second title, first since 2008. The Owls have lost in the final seven times.
In Thursday's first set, Eastern trailed throughout after the opening points. Down 18-10, Eastern scored six straight points to cut the margin to two. Leading by three, Plymouth scored the final three points on two kills and a bad Eastern set for the six-point win.
The Warriors led in the second set by as many as five points, but Plymouth pulled even and went ahead for good, 21-20 on an Eastern service error, closing out the set and taking a two-set-to-none lead on a pair of kills from six-foot-one inch junior Nora Ryan of Groton.
Hoping to extend the season, the Warriors battled back from six points down in the third set to outscore Plymouth, 13-4, and surge into a 23-20 lead. Kills by sophomore
Bella Johnson (Marlborough) and senior
Anna Barry (Andover) moved the Warriors to within set point twice. With Eastern serving and leading 25-24, the Panthers broke serve and tied the match and with the score knotted at 26-all and Eastern serving, Plymouth got a kill from senior Emilee Flanagan to move ahead, and Eastern's attack error ended its season.
After winning four of the first five sets this year that extended into "overtime", the Warriors lost five of their final six.
Barry and Johnson led both teams with 15 and 13 kills, respectively, each attacking well over .300, but no other players attacked as high as .100. Senior setter
Meg Verizzi (Lebanon) had 31 assists and nine digs, senior libero
Paula Perez (Caguas, P.R.) adding 16 digs and junior
Paige Savitsky (Centereach, NY) and first-year player
Jenna Loring (Richmond, RI) each contributing two service aces.
In the match, Barry moved into third place all-time in career kills, and concluded her career with a total of 1,364. Her final career attack percentage of .383 ranks third all-time, .001 behind All-America Kathy Kimball, who is second, and trailing leader Barb Angiletta (.403), who played only one season. One of seven players all-time with as many as 2,000 career assists, Verizzi landed at No. 5 all-time with a total of 2,246.
