The Keene State Volleyball team played in another double-match on Saturday, Oct. 5, losing their first match and winning the second in a sweep.
The first match against Eastern Connecticut State University was a hard-fought battle, as points bounced back and forth keeping it close. Two late kills by senior Molly Wetherbee drew the Owls within two points before eventually dropping the closely scored set.
Eastern stayed composed and used the momentum to get out to an early advantage in the second set. A few scoring runs lead to them winning the second set by a decent margain.
The third set opened with a barrage of points by the Owls as Keene State was on the edge of a three set sweep. The Owls were able to continue with the momentum in the third set and win by nine points.
The Warriors hopped back on the momentum train in the fourth set to finally put the Owls away in a match where Keene State seemed to never give up. It was a close set, but the large runs by Eastern Connecticut were enough to take home the match
Keene State’s volleyball team moved on to their second match of the day, against a less intimidating Westfield State team.
The Owls began the next match on fire as junior libero Grace Christian delivered a handful of serve aces, stretching an early lead. Westfield attempted to remain close but the pressure was too much from Keene State’s front line, racking up repeated kills and aces to eventually win the first set 25-12.
That Keene State pressure remained and even continued into the next set, jumping ahead by a 6-0 lead. Freshman Marina Miller accounted for several points after delivering some kills for her team. A couple of large scoring runs for the Owls kept Westfield State on their heels, doing whatever they could to claw back into the set before eventually losing 25-10.
The dominance in the previous two sets continued into the third, and what would be the final set of the match. Westfield State did battle back, jumping into an early lead of a must-win set for them. Back and forth scoring went on until sophomore Alexis Small delivered late in the third set, accounting for numerous kills to push the Owls in front yet again. The Keene State momentum carried the Owls to a 25-13 victory in the third set, completing the three game sweep over Westfield State.
Keene State’s volleyball team will travel to the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth on Saturday, October 12th, in hopes to claw back into the playoff race.
Jacob Enscoe can be contacted at
jenscoe@kscequinox.com
