Keene State volleyball comes back, wins second LEC title after rallying past Plymouth

Nov. 7—PLYMOUTH — Exactly one month ago, the Keene State College women's volleyball team might tell you they were searching for the right answers.

Saturday, in the second set of the Little East Conference tournament championship match at Plymouth State University's Foley Gymnasium, they might have again told you they were searching for the right answers as they faced a 23-12 deficit while staring a 2-0 hole in the match in the face.

Their search continued, and they did indeed find the right answers. Second-seeded KSC came storming back to win that second set — and then the match — beating their in-state rival and LEC regular season champion Panthers on their home court 3-2 (16-25, 26-24, 21-25, 25-22, 15-11) to win their second league title and first since 2008.

"Stats don't always tell the story, do they?" said Keene State head coach Bob Weiner in a statement. "This was a terrific win for our program. This group overcame adversity all year, but they learned to play together and support each other. I couldn't be more proud."

Plymouth State entered with a 21-6 record and went 7-1 in the conference's regular season slate — their only loss coming in a 3-0 sweep at the hands of the Owls at Spaulding Gymnasium in late September in which KSC was in firm control for the vast majority of the time. They did not lose in the league again, and beat Eastern Connecticut State University 3-0 on Thursday night in the semifinals to get a chance to host the final on their home court for the second time in the last three full seasons, but in came KSC to spoil it by limiting PSU to a paltry .083 attacking percentage in each of the final two sets.

The match was filled with massive momentum swings throughout, the last of which was a 10-1 Owl barrage to start the championship-deciding fifth set. Four kills from four different people (Molly Wetherbee, Sydney Johnson, Cassidy Samuelson and Gigi Stake) helped KSC move out to a 5-1 lead, and later a big solo block from Wetherbee made it 8-1 as the teams switched sides. The Owls were not done piling on, tacking on two more including a Johnson ace to take a nine-point lead as they could begin to sense their second league title.

With Plymouth's offense, which had hit .300 in taking a 2-1 match lead in the third set, totally out of sorts, a middle swing by Veronica Kroha brought up match point at 14-6. The Panthers notched four consecutive kills to get within shouting distance and then an Owl attacking error made it 14-11, but that was as close as they got. PSU picked up a tip-over by KSC on what proved to be the final point, but the ball found Natalie Gravelle near the line, and her attempted cross-court swing was well wide, kicking off a Keene State celebration that was 14 years in waiting.

Standout junior setter Kacie Blanchet was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, joining Sarah Peterson of the 2008 team to win that honor. She had 41 assists, 12 digs, and three aces Saturday, surpassing the 2,000 career assist mark. In two tournament matches, Blanchet totaled 79 assists and 25 digs. She has 2,007 assists over her three seasons (one of which was shortened to only five matches) and is currently sixth on the all-time KSC career list.

Johnson finished with 14 kills for the Owls, while Kroha had 10 kills and hit .233. Samuelson had 10 spikes (.207 pct.), while Fleming had 24 digs.

Keene State now receives the Little East Conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Division III women's volleyball tournament, with the selection show to take place on ncaa.com at 1 p.m. on Monday. The format sees eight regional sites across the country with eight teams at each. The first round begins on Friday.