WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University women's volleyball team scored the first point of the match but never led again as the slumping Warriors lost for the fourth time in the last five matches in three sets to Western Connecticut State University in a Little East Conference match Wednesday evening at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium. WestConn won by scores of 25-16, 25-21, 25-13 to give 11^th-year head coach Don Ferguson his 200^th coaching victory.
 
After losing the first set, Eastern (10-9, 2-2 LEC) trailed 7-1 in the second set but rallied to within two points on two occasions  before WestConn (13-6, 3-2 LEC) put it away on block assists by Olivia Monteleone and 6-foot-1 inch Taylor Rohan and a service aces from Jersey Jones.
 
The Wolves broke the second and final (early) tie in the final set by scoring four straight points on an Eastern service error, kill from Anna Cascapera and back-to-back service aces by Isabella Pincince to take a 9-5 lead and wrapped up the win with a final 9-1 run highlighted by consecutive kills from freshman Julia Stoliker.
 
Cascapera led a balanced WestConn attack with nine kills, Stoliker adding eight (and 13 digs and three service aces), six-foot Helen Megson seven, Rohan six and a .308 attack percentage and Delia Clouden five and a .444 attack percentage. Olivia Monteleone  had 27 assists and libero Sydney Slupatchuk 27 assists and 13 digs.
 
Senior Paige Savitsky (Centereach, NY) had six kills and three aces for Eastern, first-year player Brooke Praskievicz (Moodus) 13 digs and four kills, sophomore Liz Squier (Trevor, WI) 14 assists,  and sophomore Sadie Blackwell (Southbury) 11 digs. In her first career start, first-year player Maggie Barr (Easthampton, MA) had kills on three of four attempts.
 
Eastern, which lost all four of its All-LEC selection from a year ago -- as well as top returning offensive player Bella Johnson (Marlborough) a week ago – attacked in negative digits in two of three sets against WestConn and at .000 for the match.
 
Since starting the season 3-4, WestConn has won ten of its last 12. The Wolves had won eight straight before losing two of its previous three (both LEC matches) heading into Wednesday.
 
Eastern had beaten WestConn two of the previous three times the teams had met (both in five sets). Last year, the fifth-seeded Warriors upset the fourth-seeded and host Wolves in the first round of the LEC tournament before being eliminated in the tournament semifinals by top-seeded Plymouth State University.
 
On seniors' day, Eastern hosts Plymouth State in an LEC match Saturday at noon before facing Suffolk University in a non-conference match at 4 p.m.