Sixth-seeded Warriors swept out of LECs by No. 3 Western Conn.
DANBURY, Conn. -- For only the second time ever, the end of the road for women's volleyball came in the opening round of the Little East Conference tournament Tuesday night in a three-game loss to Western Connecticut State University at Feldman Arena. Game scores were 25-16, 25-15, 25-22.
At right: Ashley Tuggle (4)
Eastern (12-18) had qualified for the six-team tournament as the final seed Saturday with wins over Massachusettts Dartmouth and the University of Southern Maine, but was unable to advance beyond the first round of the tournament for only the second time.
Third-seeded Western (26-7) advances to the conference semifinals Friday at 6 p.m. against No. 2 seed Plymouth State University at the Clark Athletic Center on the Massachusetts Boston campus.
Eastern led only twice in the match -- in early going of the first and third games -- but stayed withIN striking distance throughout all three games. Hoping to stave off elimination in Game 3, Eastern scored three straight points to tie the game at 18 on two Western attack errors and a kill by sophomore Samantha Slonski (Griswold). At that point, the hosts responded with four straight points on two kills and two Eastern attack errors to re-gain the momentum and move on to clinch the victory, thus ending Eastern's season.
The teams were meeting in the LEC tournament for the second time in three years. In 2007, the fifth-seeded Warriors upended the second-seeded Colonials to claim their third straight LEC playoff title.
Tuesday, Eastern had a negative attack percentage iin the match.
Sophomore Taylor Abelli (Cheshire) led the way with 11 digs, with Slonski adding nine and handling 19 receptions without an error. Sophomore Britt Carrier (Southington) had 16 assists. Slonski and sophomore Kristianna Ibsen (Shelton) each had seven kills
Ashley Tuggle (South Wiindsor), the only senior on the team, had five digs, received nine serves with only one error and served nine balls with only one error
Western's Paxton Thornton, Becca Stein and Natalie Crosby combined for 23 kills. Setter Sammie Hathaway had 28 assists and nine digs, and Kelley Collins 15 digs. When Western had swept Eastern in the regular season Oct. 6 at Geissler Gym, Thornton and Stein each had ten kills
Western Conn. 3, Eastern Conn. 0
.Eastern Conn. (12-18) 16 15 22
Western Conn. (26-7) 25 25 25
