Keene State outlasts Endicott in ECAC Women's Volleyball Championship

Beverly, Mass. – Keene State University, the \#2 seed upended the \#1 seed Endicott College 3-1 (25-23, 7-25, 25-20, 26-24) to take the 2010 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III New England Women’s Volleyball Tournament on Saturday evening. Owls junior middle blocker Ellyse Davis (Londonderry, N.H.) was named Tournament Most Outstanding Player after posting 20 kills with a .246 hit percentage.

Keene State ends their 2010 season with a 27-12 record and an ECAC Championship while Endicott finishes the fall with a 24-16 mark. 

Davis recorded 13 kills in the championship match against Endicott while her teammate, sophomore outside hitter Kristen Girard (Tivoli, N.Y.), had a team-high 16 kills in the victory. Endicott’s senior outside hitter Brittany Phillips (Sudbury, Mass.) led all attackers with a match-high 23 kills and a .370 hit percentage.

The Gulls also had two other players with double-digit kills as junior Elyse Barbour (Greenville, R.I.) and Falyn Torelli (Pelham, N.Y.) had 15 and 10 kills, respectively. The Blue and Green had a .235 team hit percentage in the loss.

Defensively for Keene State, senior Jamie Levine (Medfield, Mass.) had 27 digs to lead all players. Setter Lauren Whalen (Niantic, Conn.), along with her 40 assists, also had 10 digs. Endicott had three players with 10+ digs with Ashley Norley (Sudbury, Mass.), Phillips, and Ally Murphy (Gilford, N.H.) amassed 16, 15 and 11 digs each. 

The Gulls were especially effective at the net with 14 assisted blocks and one solo block as a team. Amy Grigg (Vernon, Conn.) led the Blue and Green with five assisted blocks and Barbour had one solo and four assisted. 

Plymouth State’s Casey Stoodley (Salem, N.H.) and Allie Jones (Canton, Mass.) struck 16 and 13 kills each but it was not enough to take down the Keene State in the ECAC Semifinals. Keene State won 3-1 (25-19, 20-25, 25-21, 25-19).

Keene State’s Kristen Girard led her team with 15 kills and Jamie Levine, Girard, and Lauren Whalen came up big defensively for the Owls with 24, 14, and 12 digs.

Owls junior outside hitter Bridget O’Bryant (Merrimack, N.H.) gave a solid effort with nine kills and five solo blocks. Sophomore Ali Facchini (Niantic, Conn.) was a force at the net with seven solo blocks.

Panthers setter Sarah Cady (Holliston, Mass.) had 35 assists while her counterpart Whalen dished out 34.

Plymouth State ended their 2010 campaign with a 19-14 record.

Endicott’s senior middle blocker Amy Grigg tied a program record for blocks in a game with nine total stops in a Gulls 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-17) sweep over Colby-Sawyer. 

Offensively for Endicott, Elyse Barbour was a force with 13 kills while Brittany Phillips and Falyn Torelli added 11 and eight kills apiece. Chargers outside hitter Michelle Doody (Franklin, Mass.) led her squad with 13 kills with Emilee McBride (Strafford, N.H.) chipping in with eight kills and only one error. 

Chargers libero Ally Le-Bruno (Medfield, Mass.) and Gulls libero Ashley Norley tied for a match-high 21 digs. Endicott setter Sarah Allshouse (Berthoud, Colo.) bested her counterpart Kristen Sawyer (Walpole, Mass.) with 32 assists compared to Sawyer’s 27.

Colby-Sawyer ended their 2010 season with a 20-15 record.