Box Score  

WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Momentum.

The Eastern Connecticut State University women's volleyball team seized it at the start and never relinquished control in rolling to its third Little East Conference win without a loss in dispatching Western Connecticut State University in 83 minutes, 25-16, 25-20, 25-16  Wednesday night at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium. 

With its sixth straight win, Eastern (13-3, 3-0 LEC) snapped a four-match losing streak at the hands of WestConn (12-5, 1-2 LEC), which had won the regular-season contest and a first-round LEC playoff match each of the last two years. The Wolves had captured seven in a row overall this year before dropping a four-set home decision this past Saturday to 2024 LEC regular-season titlist and playoff finalist Plymouth State University.

The Warriors never let their early momentum slip away, putting together scoring runs of four or more straight points five times, including six in a run in the opening minutes of the first set, another six-point burst to snap an 18-18 tie late in the important second set, and a final seven-point surge that turned a one-point deficit into a 17-11 lead in the clinching final set. For their part, the Wolves were never able to sustain momentum, failing to piece together scoring runs of more than four in a row, which happened only once in each set. 
 
Eastern remains one of three undefeated teams in the conference, joining defending champion University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and University of Massachusetts Boston. UMass Dartmouth swept homestanding Rhode Island College and UMass Boston swept visiting University of Southern Maine Wednesday night to keep their early LEC unbeaten records intact.
 
The sweep was Eastern's sixth this year  but first since 2018 over WestConn, which had beaten the Warriors on their home floor the last three times the teams had met.

Junior Brooke Praskievicz (Moodus), who served 20 balls without an error (and four aces) against WestConn, served six straight point in the first set Wednesday to help stake the Warriors to a 7-1 lead. A pair of kills by first-year player Allegra Copeland (Beaumont, CA) were key as Eastern pushed the lead to 11-2 and the Wolves never got closer than six the rest of the way.
 
Eastern dug out of an early five-point hole in the second set before finally pulling even and then taking its first lead since the opening point on three straight Wolves' attack errors. With the score tied at 18-all, Eastern took command with six straight points to move to within a victory of winning the match. In that decisive run, Copeland had two kills and an ace, and juniors Sierra York (Ashford) and Haley Jo Bridges (Montebello, NY) contributed a kill each.
 
Eastern broke the seventh and final tie of the third set by reeling off six straight points again, with four different players chipping in a kill and WestConn committing two attack errors.
 
Copeland (nine kills), sophomore Addison Soleau (East Lyme) and Bridges (seven kills each) led all players in the match in kills, with Bridges attacking at a match-high .308. Sophomore libero Emerson Conigliaro (Raleigh, NC) led all players with 15 digs and was perfect on 23 reception attempts, while Praskievicz had 11 digs. Senior Liz Squier (Trevor, WI) led both teams with 20 assists, first-year setter Sonya Nielsen (Waterford, WI) adding 11.
 
Eastern played without first-team All-LEC outside Emma Robinson (Westlake Village, CA), who missed her first career match.
 
Eastern visits Mitchell College (7-7) Friday at 5 p.m. in a non-conference match. The Warriors have won all 11 matches in the series with the Mariners.