Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
BOSTON – The Suffolk University women's volleyball team broke the eighth and final tie of the decisive fourth set by scoring the final two points on Eastern Connecticut State University attack errors as the Rams posted a four-set victory Saturday afternoon at Smith Court on the Suffolk campus.
 
Eastern (3-2) never trailed and led by four late in the fourth set before Suffolk (5-0) tied the match, 23-23 on a kill by Sami Shore, and won it when Shore served the final two points when the Warriors were guilty of successive attack errors.
 
Suffolk, which evens the all-time series with its second straight win over Eastern, won by scores of 25-22, 22-25, 25-20, 25-23.
 
In the first match against Rutgers University-Newark in 29 years, the Warriors easily won the opening set, then prevailed in the final two for a 25-14, 25-21, 25-21 triumph.
 
Against Rutgers-Newark (2-4), first-year outside Emma Robinson (Westlake Village, CA) improved her season attack percentage to .325 by attacking at .435 with a match-high 14 kills. She also had five service aces and six digs. Senior outside Bella Johnson (Marlborough) followed with ten kills and a .667 attack percentage, while sophomore outside Brooke Praskievicz (Moodus) had five kills, a match-high seven digs and two service aces. First-year setter Ariah Davis (Raleigh, NC) and junior Liz Squier (Trevor, WI) combined for 38 assists.
 
Against Suffolk, Eastern attacked at only .121, committed ten reception errors and ten service errors as the Rams remained perfect on the season. Eastern tied the match with its three-point second-set victory. The Warriors broke the fifth and final tie (21-21) when Johnson recorded a kill off a serve by Robinson and set by junior Samantha Blandford (Windham, NH), and Eastern made it 23-21on a Suffolk attack error off another Robinson serve. With a chance to tie the match, the Rams committed an attack error and Eastern nailed down the three-point win and tied the match at 1-set each on a kill by Robinson off another set from Blandford.
 
Against Suffolk, four Eastern players combined for 35 of the team's 46 kills: Johnson had 12, Robinson and sophomore Haley Jo Bridges (Montebello, NY) eight each and sophomore Maggie Barr (East Hampton) seven. Barr attacked at .500 without making an error on 14 attempts. Squier had 20 assists and Blandford 11. First-year libero Emerson Conigliaro (Wake Forest, NC) – playing in her first collegiate matches Saturday -- who had six digs without a reception error on 13 attempts against Rutgers, had a match-high 27 digs against the Rams with just one reception error on 21 attempts, with junior libero Sadie Blackwell (Southbury) adding ten digs and Blandford nine.
 
On the afternoon, Robinson and Johnson each had 22 kills, with Bridges collecting 14 kills and four blocks, and Barr 11 kills, the latter attacking at .455 on 22 attempts. Squier had 37 assists and Davis 23, Conigliaro digging 33 balls with a .971 reception percentage on 34 attempts. Robinson served six aces, Blackwell  and Blandford four each.
 
Eastern visits Trinity College Friday at 6 p.m. at Ray Oosting Gymnasium. The Warriors had won five of six against the Bantams before being swept last year at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium. The Bantams had won their first three matches this year heading into a late Saturday match at the University of Massachusetts Boston of the Little East Conference.