Box Score
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --  Junior Taylor Thompson (West Point, NY) had two kills and senior Bella Johnson (Marlborough) one as the Eastern Connecticut State University women's volleyball team broke from the ninth and final tie to score the final three points in the decisive fifth set in a Little East Conference victory over Rhode Island College Wednesday evening at The Murray Center. Scores were 26-24, 23-25, 12-25, 25-18, 15-13.

The win is the 14^th straight for Eastern (10-5, 3-0 LEC) over Rhode Island (10-4, 1-2 LEC) and keeps the Warriors atop the conference standings with Plymouth State University (16-1, 3-0 LEC), which lost in five sets in last year's LEC playoff title game.

Eastern has won the last four times it has gone five sets against Rhode Island and have now won its first three LEC matches twice in the last five non-Covid seasons. In 2019, Eastern won its first three matches and finished with a share of its most recent LEC regular-season title. It was only Eastern's second five-set match of the year, the other one coming Sept. 17 in a loss at Trinity College after the Warriors had taken the first two sets.

Despite picked to finish ninth (last) in the LEC pre-season poll, Rhode Island is off to one of its best starts in recent years, and needed only one set victory over the Warriors Wednesday after trouncing Eastern in the third set by 13 points to go up 2-sets-to-1. The Warriors stayed alive, however, with a seven-point victory in the fourth set, outscoring the hosts 12-4 to turn a one-point lead into a nine-point, 23-14 advantage. In that 12-4 run, Johnson had two kills and first-year outside Emma Robinson (Westlake Village, CA) two, with Thompson and sophomore Haley Jo Bridges (Montebello, NY) adding one and first-year libero Emerson Conigliaro (Wake Forest, NC) adding a service ace.

In the fifth set, after the hosts scored five straight early to wipe out the Warriors' 4-1 lead, neither team led by more than a point until the Warriors scored four of the final six points.  Eastern never trailed after Johnson's kill made it 12-11 and Johnson gave Eastern the lead for good, 13-12, with her 14^th and final kill of the match.

Robinson shared game-high honors with 18 kills (moving her to within 23 of 200 on the season), with Johnson adding 14 kills on a game-high .387 attack percentage. Junior Liz Squier (Trevor, WI) had 43 assists and sophomore Maggie Barr (Easthampton, MA) three blocks. Squier, Conigliaro and junior Sadie Blackwell (Southbury) all had 16 digs, sophomore Brooke Praskievicz (Moodus) digging up 14. Praskievicz, who leads the team in reception attempts (274) and percentage (.964),  handled 25 receptions with just one error, as did Blackwell. Conigliaro led the team by receiving 38 serves and commited only three errors (.927).

Eastern hosts VTSU Castleton (9-7, 0-3 LEC) Saturday in a conference Senior Day match at noon before facing Western New England University in a non-conference match at 4 p.m.