WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Senior All-America
Anna Barry (Andover) had 18 kills and senior libero
Paula Perez (Caguas, P.R.) 24 digs and ten assists as the Eastern Connecticut State University women's volleyball team snapped an 11-match losing streak at the hands of Connecticut College with a four-set non-conference win Saturday afternoon at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium. Scorers were 25-27, 25-21, 25-19, 25-23.
In the first match of the day, Eastern (9-2, 2-0 Little East) swept the University of Southern Maine (2-10, 1-1 Little East) by scores of 25-10, 25-12, 25-11.
The win against Southern Maine was Eastern's fourth straight sweep this year and the victory over Conn (5-3) was Eastern's seventh win in a row overall this year and kept it unbeaten (5-0) at home this year.
Trailing by three, Eastern outscored Conn 7-2 to end the fourth set and post its first win over the Camels since 2006. First-year player
Taylor Thompson's (Cornwall, NY) only kill of the match sparked the rally, with Barry contributing two kills and junior
Paige Savitsky (Centereach, NY) and sophomore
Paige Carlson (Milford) one each, with first-year player
Liz Squier (Trevor, WI) serving an ace. With the score tied at 23-all, two Conn attack errors ended the set and match.
Senior
Nayeli Cruz Martinez (Toa Baja, P.R.) and sophomore
Bella Johnson (Marlborough) combined for nine kills against Conn, With Savitsky collecting six digs, Squire nine assists and senior
Meg Verizzi (Lebanon) seven. The Warriors did not commit a reception error against the Camels.
Eastern had set point but failed to close out the first set before rebounding for four-point and six-point wins to set up the final set. In the all-important third set, Squier and Barry had back-to-back kills to give Eastern the lead for good, 11-9. With Eastern later leading by three points, Johnson had a kill on a set from Verizzi and Cruz Martinez served back-to-back aces to put the Warriors in command, 21-15.
Barry, last year's LEC Offensive Player-of-the-Year and this year's conference leader in kills, had 29 kills on the day with a .462 attack percentage, with Johnson adding 24 kills and a .383 attack percentage, and Cruz Martinez 18 kills and a .419 percentage.
In the two wins, Verizzi totaled 67 assists and seven service aces, helping the Warriors to 26 service aces against only six reception errors. Perez had 38 digs and was perfect on 32 reception attempts, Savitsky adding 23 digs, first-year player
Sadie Blackwell (Southbury) 18 digs and Verizzi 14.
Against Southern Maine, Johnson had 15 kills and a .636 attack percentage, Barry 11 kills and a .529 percentage and Cruz Martinez ten kills and a .571 attack percentage.
Eastern visits Western Connecticut State University Wednesday in an LEC match at 7 p.m. Western (4-7, 2-0 LEC) brings four-game winning streak into a non-conference match Monday at Mitchell College.
