SCORE BOXES:
Plymouth 3 Westfield State 0
Plymouth 0 SUNY New Paltz 3
Plymouth 2 Springfield 3
Plymouth 2 Stevens 3
Despite going into last weekend’s invitational on an eight game winning streak, the Panthers won only one out of four matches last Friday and Saturday, October 7th and 8th. Plymouth defeated Westfield State 3 sets to none, but lost to Springfield (3 sets to 2), SUNY New Paltz (3-0), and Stevens (3-2).
The final result of each of the losses doesn’t show how close each individual set was, as the Panthers were never really out of any set, let alone a complete game. On Friday, the Panthers were lead by senior Meghan Sullivan (Marlton, N.J.), sophomore Allie Jones (Canton, Mass.), senior Sarah Cady (Holliston, Mass.), and junior Casey Stoodley (Salem, N.H.) against Springfield. Sullivan and Jones recorded a combined 25 kills, while Cady had 50 assists. The double-double machine in Stoodley continued, as she had 12 kills and 17 digs. As far as the match against Stevens goes, senior Danielle Stoodley (Salem, N.H) had 21 digs while Katlyn Tedeschi (Pascoag, R.I.) had nine kills.
The Saturday potion of the tournament went better for the Panthers as they defeated Westfield State after SUNY New Paltz defeated them. Even though the 1-3 overall record in the tournament wasn’t what Plymouth wanted, Danielle Stoodley was named to the All-Tournament team, due to large part from having over 60 total digs between the four matches. Overall, the tournament was seen as a positive weekend for the Panthers.
To follow up their performance, the Panthers defeated Southern Maine on Tuesday night to bring their overall record to 14-8, and their Little East Conference record to 3-1.
Head Coach Chris Kilmer always sees positives in the team’s losses, but also stresses what the team could have done different in victories. Says Kilmer in reference to the game against Keene State last week, “the greatest part is even in a victory like last night, we still saw areas where we could improve which means we’re only going to continue to get better as the season progresses.”
Plymouth is on their way to the Little East Conference playoffs, there is no doubt about that. As far as what seed they will get will be unknown, because they still have to play three more L.E.C. opponents (East Conn. on Oct. 22nd, UMASS Boston on Oct 25th and Rhode Island College on Oct. 29th). If the Panthers are able to win two out of the three of these matches, they will most likely get a three seed (beating UMASS Boston will be crucial, they are currently 3-0 in conference play and 17-2 overall). With Kilmer as the head coach, and with the many players that have played big roles for the Panthers this year, they have a great chance at doing some damage not only for the rest of the regular season, but the post-season as well.