Plymouth Women's Volleyball Team Looks to Improve

SCORE BOX:

Plymouth 1 Western CONN 3

Plymouth 3 Rivier 0

Plymouth, N.H.- The Plymouth State woman's volleyball team lost in their homeopener, 3 sets to 1 against Western Connecticut State University last Saturday, September 17th. Plymouth also played Rivier College this past Tuesday, and defeated the Raiders three sets to zero on Tuesday night, September 20th. After these two games, the Panther's overall record is 5-5 and after the loss against West Conn, their league record is 0-1.

Despite losing to their first Little East Conference opponent this year, Head Coach Chris Kilmer said that he "believes if we had played our best match we would have beaten them (West Conn)." The Panthers dropped the first two sets 20-25 and 19-25 respectively, but came back to win the third set 25-20. With a little bit of momentum after winning the third set, the Panthers put up a valiant effort behind Danielle and Casey Stoodley (Salem, N.H.), Sarah Cady (Holliston, Mass.), and Cassie Pelton (Brookline, N.H.), but ultimately lost the fourth set 27-25. When asked what Coach Kilmer thought about what contributed to the slow start, he said "we were a bit out of sync and got behind early, which was difficult to make up." The Panthers tried to claw their way back from the 2-0 hole, but were unable to against the Colonials.

The Panthers season continues on, as their next match will be against UMass Dartmouth tomorrow afternoon at Dartmouth. The Corsairs of Dartmouth come into this game with a L.E.C. Victory over Southern Maine, and an overall record of 8-2. The first two league games of the season (between West Conn and UMass Dartmouth) are good indicators as to where the Panthers might end up being this season. Both of these teams are usually two of the top teams within the division, and Coach Kilmer stated that he "believes that we were (and are) the better team (then West Conn.)." When a coach feels confident about their team like this (regardless of the sport), the team has to be one that everyone else must keep an eye on.

Plymouth is a team that will play game-by- game and won't overlook any and all opponents. Captains Sarah Cady and Alex Avery (Milton, N.H.) along with Coach Kilmer will be well prepared for each individual opponent this year, as all three have been on the same page since it was announced back on July 20th that Kilmer was going to be the Head Coach this year. With all three clicking on the same page since then, it should be fun to watch this team throughout the fall, and hopefully, to the team's ultimate goal, the Little East Conference championship (and beyond).