Box Score
Records: Eastern 15-5 overall (4-2 LEC)
UMass Dartmouth 20-6 overall, 7-0 LEC
Notes:
- The Corsairs, the two-time defending LEC playoff championships, posted their 14th sweep of the year and fourth in as many years against Eastern that came on the heels of a 12-game Eastern winning streak in the series.
- The Warriors dropped a full game behind Plymouth State University (16-6, 5-1 LEC), which did not have an LEC match Saturday. Eastern shares third place in the LEC with the University of Massachusetts Boston, which Eastern hosts Saturday at 3 p.m.
- Unofficially, a split of its final two LEC matches will give Eastern no worse than fourth place in the final standings and a first-round LEC home match Nov. 11.
Set-by-set:
Set 1: Eastern Connecticut and UMass Dartmouth could not be separated through the first 7 points of the opening set, with Eastern's
Addison Soleau earning 2 kills early on. From there, the Corsairs built up a sizeable lead that guided them towards a 1 set advantage. The combination of Skye Peters and Olivia Seutter hurt the Warriors throughout the set, with the pair combining on 4 separate occasions. Peters ended the set with 10 assists and Seutter with 6 kills.
Set 2: Similar to the first set, the Warriors kept pace early on, with service aces from
Liz Squier and
Brooke Praskievicz giving UMASS Dartmouth some trouble. Kills from
Sierra York helped Eastern to an 8-4 lead, their largest of the match thus far. The Corsairs went on a 9-2 lead to force a timeout from the Warriors, who found themselves down by 3. Eastern Connecticut came firing out of the timeout, tying the match at 13. York continued her impressive second set, adding another 3 kills before the next Warrior timeout. However, Eastern Connecticut's improvement on the first set was not enough to win the second set, falling 2 behind the Corsairs.
Set 3: Continuing trends from earlier in the match, the Warriors proved they could compete with the conference-leading Corsairs. Once again, UMASS Dartmouth found momentum later in the set and pulled away from the Warriors. Eastern Connecticut found themselves within 3 points, down 22-19, but consecutive kills from Allison Pate helped UMASS Dartmouth close out the match.
Key Stats:
- Olivia Seutter (UMD) and Allison Pate (UMD) combined for 24 kills, with 14 and 10, respectively
- Sierra York (Ashford) and Emma Robinson (Westlake Village, CA) each had 9 kills, both contributing a block
- Addison Soleau (East Lyme) had 7 kills and just 1 error, holding the best hitting percentage in the match (.375)
The Warriors are back in action on Wednesday, October 29, when they take on Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI at 6 p.m. This non-conference match will end a run of three consecutive Little East matches. The Warriors return home Saturday to host the University of Massachusetts Boston at 3 p.m. in their penultimate LEC regular-season contest and close out the regular season with an LEC match at the University of Southern Maine in two weeks.
