AURORA CARABALLO
SportsEditor
The Keene State College volleyball team dominated the court Wednesday night in their game against Westfield State University.
Keene State had an early 6-5 lead in the opening set, but was able to pull away quickly after scoring seven of the eight points that followed. This put KSC in front 13-6 after kills from Emilyann Ashford and an ace by Ali McLoughlin.
Kacie Blanchet led the KSC Owl’s into double-digits with a pair of her five aces on the night.
Cassidy Samuelson doubled KSC’s lead 24-12 before the home Owl’s first-year middle blocker, Sarah Bingham made a serve error to end the first set, 25-15 in favor of Keene State.
The second set was similar to the first.
The Westfield State University Owls were tied with the Keene State Owls, but a spike by Johnson started a 10-2 burst for Keene State.
This resulted in a 16-8 lead.
Samuelson and Ashford both had kills and a combined block that widened the gap to 20-12.
KSC ended that one with a 25-15 lead as well.
The third set was the closest of the three.
Keene State was down once in the set with a score of 4-3, but they made a major comeback and they were never behind again after that.
With a score of 17-16, KSC had a brief 5-1 binge with kills from Sydney Johnson, Ashford, and Elizabeth Johnson.
Westfield tried to make a comeback, adding two, but this was followed by kills from both Elizabeth and Sydney Johnson.
Keene State took the third set 25-21.
Cassidy Samuelson had nine kills this game. She matched her career mark, set in the season-opener against Skidmore. Samuelson has managed to rack up a total of 25 kills over the only four matches this season.
Emilyann Ashford also added eight kills for herself in the game.
This win made the Owl’s 4-0 for the first time since 2017.
Aurora Caraballo can
be contacted at
acaraballo@kscequinox.com
