Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
WILLIMANTIC, Conn- Eastern Connecticut State University women's volleyball team had a successful day defeating both the University of Southern Maine in its first Little East Conference matchup and Maritime College Saturday afternoon at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium. The Warriors have won four straight overall and remain unbeaten in four home matches this  year.

In the first game against University of Southern Maine (4-11, 0-1 LEC), the Warriors won the first two sets, before falling in the third. The Warriors finalized the game in the fourth set with a 5-point victory. Set scores were 25-19, 25-13, 21-25, 25-20. Eastern (8-4, 1-0 LEC) expanded its all-time record to 12-2 against the Huskies and is now 4-0 at home.

Against USM, Eastern was led by first-year outside Emma Robinson (Westlake Village, CA) who had 12 kills while senior Bella Johnson (Malborough) contributed 9. Sophomore Maggie Barr (Easthampton, MA) tied her career high and had a game high 5 blocks. Junior Liz Squier (Trevor, WI) added 25 assists and 13 digs. Emerson Conigliaro (Wake Forest, NC) and Brooke Praskievicz (Moodus) combined for 34 digs, 19 and 15, respectively.

Against Maritime College, the Warriors cruised to a win in three sets. The scores were 25-22, 25-8, and 25-15. Sophomore Sierra York (Ashford) had seven straight serves off Warrior points. York also had team high 8 digs. Junior Samantha Blandford (Windham, NH) had 12 assists while Conigliaro and Squier each with 6. The Privateers were coming directly off a five-set victory over Southern Maine that took nearly two hours, but battled the Warriors in the first set, where there were 12 ties and five lead changes.

On the day, Robinson struggled with a .115 attack percentage but her 61 attempts allowed her to lead the Warriors with 19 kills while Johnson had 13 kills. Coming into the day, Robinson was leading the team in kills with 113 and a .268 attack percentage. Squier contributed 31 assists today and has a season total of 225.

Junior Taylor Thompson (West Point, NY) and first-year player Addison Soleau (East Lyme) both came off the bench to contribute important points at critical times on the day, neither commiting an attack error. Thompson had 11 kills, Soleau five. In seven sets, Conigliaro handled 31 serve receptions with only two errors, and led all players with 26 digs, with seven of her 36 serves resulting in aces. Praskievicz had 19 digs, handled 27 receptions with just one error and served 31 balls without an error and recorded four aces. York had five service aces on only 20 attempts, while junior Sadie Blackwell (Southbury) chipped in four of the team's total of 28 aces (by contrast, the Warriors were guilty of only seven reception errors).

Eastern has a week break before hosting another tri-match against Keene State College (6-9, 0-1 LEC) Saturday at noon in a Little East match, and Westfield State University at 4 p.m. at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium. Keene and Eastern shared fifth place in the LEC pre-season poll. Under first-year head coach Jacob Girard, the Owls had dropped six of their last seven heading into an LEC match at home Wednesday against VTSU Castleton.