WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Sophomore Taylor Thompson (West Point, NY) and first-year player Brooke Praskievicz (Moodus) each totalled career-highs of 16 kills as the Eastern Connecticut State University women's volleyball team defeated Rhode Island College for the 13^th consecutive time, 3-1, in Little East Conference action Wednesday evening at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.

Playing its first home match in nearly three weeks, Eastern (8-4, 2-0 LEC) posted 30-28, 25-20, 22-25, 25-16 wins  to improve to 4-1 at home this year and 68-11 in the all-time series against Rhode Island (4-5, 1-1 LEC). The Anchorwomen were coming off a four-set win in the conference opener four days ago against VTSU Castleton.

Eastern captured the first two sets by a combined total of seven points and after the Anchorwomen scored seven straight points to break a 10-all tie and go on to a three-point victory in the third set, Eastern put the match away with a nine-point win in the fourth set.

There were ten ties and five lead changes in the fourth set before the Warriors scored the final ten points of the set, the final three coming on kills by Thompson. After a kill by Thompson evened the score for the final time at 16-all, junior libero Cassie Parmelee (East Berlin) served the final nine points. In addition to Thompson's final three kills Parmelee served three aces and Praskievicz, first-year player Haley Jo Bridges (Montebello, NY) and senior Paige Savitsky (Centereach, NY) contributed kills to help account for those final ten points.

In the important first set, there were ten ties and six lead changes. Eastern faced set point three times in the set, but evened the score each time on kills by Thompson and Praskievicz and a bad set by Rhode Island. With the score tied at 28-all Savitsky served the final two points, getting kills from junior Bella Johnson (Marlborough) and Praskievicz to gain the victory.

In addition to attacking at .325, Praskievicz had 24 digs and four service aces and had a .957 reception percentage. Bridges contributed eight kills on a match-high .636 attack percentage; Parmelee finished with six service aces and a team-high 25 digs; and sophomore Liz Squier (Trevor, WI) had 30 assists and 11 digs and sophomore Samantha Blandford (Windham, NH) 16 assists.

For Rhode Island, junior Megan Philbrick (Johnston, RI) and freshman Sarina Marines (Cranston, RI) combined for 25 kills, freshman Paula Pesoa (Johnston, RI) had 26 assists, and junior libero Nicole Normandin (Blackston, MA) 27 digs and a .952 reception percentage.

Eastern visits Keene State College in a Little East Conference match Saturday at noon, also facing Framingham State University at 2 p.m.