PLYMOUTH, N.H. – The much-anticipated meeting between the UMass Dartmouth women's volleyball team and Plymouth State was the battle that we all anticipated between the two undefeated leaders of the Little East Conference. With both teams boasting a 7-0 conference record coming in, this final match of the regular season would determine the Little East Conference's regular season champion, as well as where the Conference Tournament will go through.
UMass Dartmouth prevailed in miraculous fashion, coming back from an 0-2 deficit to win 3-2 (14-25, 22-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-10). The Corsairs are the Little East Conference's regular season champions for the first time in program history. The team finished their season with the best conference record in the program's history at 8-0, and had to overcome the reigning champion Panthers from the 2022 regular season to do it. Historically, Plymouth State has dominated this matchup, having won 27 of the 29 meetings between the two programs prior to this one. This win for the Corsairs marks their third win ever over the Panthers and the first time beating them since October 2
nd of 2001.
Head Coach
Justin Turco earned the biggest win so far in his UMass Dartmouth tenure. In his first two seasons as the UMass Dartmouth Head Volleyball Coach, he has rapidly turned the program around and has led this team to the top of the Little East for the first time in the program's history.
UMass Dartmouth has earned the #1 seed and home-court advantage for the LEC Tournament, meaning the road to the LEC Championship will be through Dartmouth. The Corsairs enter the tournament as the hottest team in the conference on an 11-game win streak. For the Panthers, they will certainly be ready to bounce back from one of their few losses of the season, their season wraps up with an impressive 22-4 overall record and 7-1 against conference opponents.
In the opening set, Plymouth State showed why they have been a powerhouse of the conference over the last three years. They took a dominant first set win, taking it by an 11-point margin, the largest point discrepancy of any of the five sets. PSU's star senior Nora Ryan had a great day, starting in the first set where she recorded two kills and had a spree with three consecutive service aces. The Corsairs made a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes early on, and the Panthers capitalized to take the 1-0 advantage.
There was a much tighter gap throughout the second set, which set the pace for how the rest of this contest would go. These two conference-powerhouses battled it out for each set. With the set tied at 20-20, the Panthers separated themselves with back-to-back kills from junior Lilli Stogner and freshman Emma Hampton, followed by another finish from sophomore Riley McDonough and a couple of UMD errors to take the set, 25-22 in favor of Plymouth State.
Trailing 0-2 with the #1 seed slipping away from them, UMass Dartmouth began their fight back in the third set. The Corsairs appeared to be the fresher team in the later sets as they started to take control of the contest. However, the Panthers were threatening the 3-0 sweep with the score tied at 15-15 past the midway point of the set. Then, UMass Dartmouth's junior
Kate Wade, who has led this Corsairs offense all season, notched three timely kills to give UMD a late lead in the set. UMass Dartmouth took a 23-18 lead after a huge block from the pair of juniors in
Chelsea Sanker and
Monika Kristjansdottir and a Wade finish. PSU committed two service errors to hand the Corsairs the third set and keep the comeback alive.
Coming off their first set win of this match, UMass Dartmouth kept their momentum going into the fourth frame. Sanker started off the set with back-to-back kills, followed by a Wade ace and another two kills from senior
Devon Laing, who had one of her best all-around performances of the season, to give UMD an early 6-1 lead. The Corsairs were unable to keep their distance, however, as a four-point run from the Panthers would even the set at 15-15. The two teams traded points in one of the most intense sets of the match. With the set score still even at 20-20, it was the Corsairs who separated themselves with kills from Kristjansdottir, Wade and Sanker to get to set point. Another Plymouth State service error gave UMass Dartmouth the set win, forcing a fifth set in Plymouth.
The crowd was electric in Plymouth for the final set. The Panthers thus far were undefeated on their home court, and had only been forced to a fifth set at home once by Salve Regina. Despite the home-court advantage for the Panthers, the Corsairs had all the momentum going into the fifth set. UMD appeared to be the fresher of the two teams still, as they jumped out to a 7-3 lead to force a PSU time out. After Plymouth State narrowed the gap back to two points, the Corsairs secured four of the next five points, featuring two kills from Sanker, to take an 11-6 advantage. The Panthers looked to battle back, and with a 13-10 lead, the Corsairs scored the final two points of the 2023 regular season, capped off by a powerful block from the pair of seniors up front in
Maggie Sullivan and
Gabriella Monico, to complete the comeback for the Corsairs.
UMass Dartmouth saw outstanding performances from a number of student-athletes in their biggest match of the year thus far. Sanker led the team with 17 kills on .226 hitting. Sanker also added four digs and took part on two block assists. Wade recorded 13 kills, four digs, two service aces and five set assists. Laing tallied 12 kills and 24 digs, along with two service aces and two block assists. Freshman
Skye Peters and sophomore
Sabrina Bordone split the action at the setter position, with Peters had a match-best 25 set assists, while Bordone added 15 of her own. Sullivan, Monico and Kristjansdottir defended the net well, recording 10 block assists between those three and led by four by Sullivan. Sophomore
Emily Pogorelec had 22 digs along with being the match-leader in service aces with four.
The Panthers saw great offensive performances from Ryan and Stogner, who tallied 18 and 17 kills, respectively. Ryan also dominated the front line with five block assists and two solo-blocks. Junior Makayla Marucci led the match with 35 digs while adding 10 set assists and three aces.
After winning the first regular season championship in the program's history, UMass Dartmouth will host an LEC Tournament game for the second straight season. The road to the LEC Championship will be through Dartmouth, as the Corsairs await their Semifinal matchup on Thursday, November 9
th. UMassD will face the winner of #4 UMass Boston and #5 Keene State that is set to be played in Boston on Tuesday, November 7
th. UMD will host the winner in the Tripp Athletic Center on Thursday.
