Suffolk University volleyball hosted the Western New England Golden Bears in the first round of the Conference of New England playoffs, with the Rams being swept 3-0 by the Golden Bears to end their season.
Facing off in postseason play for the first time since 2005, the match was close all night as both teams showed why they ended the regular season with the same record in conference play.
Suffolk jumped out to an early 6-1 lead in set one before the Golden Bears scored seven straight points to surge into the lead. There were six different lead changes before the score became deadlocked at 20.
From there, both sides traded points as the set extended far past 25 points. In the end, the Golden Bears prevailed in the first set by toughing out a 31-29 set win. The set did not come without chances for the Rams to gain the advantage.
“We had our chances,” said head coach Scott Blanchard. “We had two or three chances to win it. We missed a serve on one, we hit a ball out of bounds on another. I teach them to play to win instead of don’t play to not lose. They went for it, and sometimes you make mistakes.”
The Rams took an early 7-4 lead in set two before the Golden Bears rallied their way to the lead again. They extended their lead to 19-13 and withstood a few short Suffolk rallies to hold on and win the second set 25-22.
Western New England took a 12-8 lead to begin set three before the Rams rallied to even the score at 17. After that, it was all Golden Bears as they outscored the Rams 8-2 to win the set and the match.
According to Blanchard, falling out of their system was a struggle for the Rams all game long.
“When we get out of system it’s hard to attack the way we want to,” said Blanchard. “When we were in system, we were scoring points. If we don’t pass the ball and we get out of system, it makes it pretty difficult.”
Senior McKenna Keowen led the Rams on the stat sheet with a 17 kill, 13 dig double double. Jayla Martinez produced 20 assists, four digs and four aces. Libero Morgan Kelsey picked up 18 digs, falling 15 shy of becoming the program’s all time digs leader.
Six seniors played their last game in a Suffolk uniform as a result of the loss. Martinez, Keowen, Kelsey, Sophie Palmer, Isabelle Huzar and Tatum Kalt were part of one of the most decorated classes in program history, rewriting the school record book in more ways than one.
Blanchard made sure to credit the class as one of the most decorated in school history.
“I talked to them and I said ‘I know this didn’t end the way we wanted it to end, but after it wears off, you will look back on this and smile,’” said Blanchard. “They had a great four years, they won 70 matches as a class. They set numerous records as a group. I said ‘don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.’”
