COURTESY PHOTO OF PSU ATHLETICS
This past Tuesday opened the Little East Conference tournament in volleyball for rivals Plymouth State and Keene State. Keene would walk right to the end to grab the win and end Plymouth’s season with a record of 11-20.
It was a powerful start from Alisha Flanagan (Milton NH) by opening the game with a kill and putting the Panthers on the board. But Keene wouldn’t see the end of being behind for the rest of the match and they scored six straight after that. PSU was able to dig themselves out by taking advantage of a few errors made by Keene, but even then, they were only able to get within six, and Keene brought the first set home.
The second set started off in favor of Keene once again, but the Panthers were able to pull it together and get a stop. Getting within two, things were looking up until Keene went on another scoring spree, forcing PSU to take a timeout. After regathering, they grabbed a couple points to make it 12-6 but Keene wouldn’t look back, scoring with no answer and taking the second set.
The final set started totally different than the last, with several lead changes and ties between both teams. All was looking up for the Panthers after Alexa Price (Moultonborough NH) sparked a kill to bring them within two. But another killing spree from Keene put Plymouth out of the game and LEC competition altogether.
Keene’s hitting percentage was 0.323 more than Plymouth’s and almost getting 20 more digs. As Keene will continue to semi-finals today, the Panthers will end their season here as well as ending three volleyball careers. Ari Linden (Lena IL), Kennedy Mang (Livonia MI) and Jill Tiner (Salem NH) are all seniors and played their last game.