BIDDEFORD — A two-set lead didn’t mean much for the University of New England volleyball team against Western New England on Tuesday. The Golden Bears rallied from an early deficit in the third set to seize momentum and rally to win 3-2 in a Commonwealth Coast Conference first-round match at Harold Alfond Forum.
The Nor’easters earned the fourth seed over WNE by virtue of a 3-1 victory over the Golden Bears during the regular season. UNE looked like it was on its way to another victory on Tuesday, as it eked out a 25-23 win in the first set before winning the second by a relatively easy 25-16 score.
UNE all-conference middle hitter Angie Brunette was strong at the net in the second set, with a match-high 18 kills, and the Nor’easters gave up two-consecutive service points just once in the set.
“We came out, played real well in the (first two sets),” said UNE head coach Karol L’Heureux. “We had the momentum throughout the first and the second.”
Brunette then showed her serving ability as she helped UNE to get out to a 9-6 lead in the third set. Brunette served the Nor’easters to the lead, but once she came out, the Golden Bears went to work rallying back. WNE won seven of the next eight points to take a 13-10 lead and force L’Heureux to take a timeout.
Aiding L’Heureux’s decision to use her first timeout of the match was seeing her team watch the ball drop in the middle of the court with no one attempting to hit it.
“That’s a loss of focus right there. That’s not like us, either,” said L’Heureux. “You can’t do that when you’re playing a team like this.”
The timeout did little to quell the Golden Bears’ run, as UNE won the next point, but lost the final 12 to lose the set 25-11.
“It’s not like we weren’t playing well. We did really well. Then they brought in that ace server (and) boy, she was doing a number on us,” L’Heureux said of WNE’s Kasey Cameron.
WNE carried momentum into the fourth set, but the Nor’easters answered every Golden Bear run with one of its own. Appropriately, the set went into extra points, with WNE edging the Nor’easters for a 27-25 win.
The Golden Bears won a long volley to even the set at 24-24, but a bad serve by Kendra Ouimette two points later kept the set alive for UNE.
UNE’s Jalene Kanayurak had a bad serve of her own to give WNE a 26-25 lead, and the Golden Bears then closed out the set to knot up the match at two sets apiece.
Ouimette served the Golden Bears to an 8-3 lead before the teams switched sides in the fifth set. The change of scenery aided the Nor’easters, as they won five of the next six points to cut the deficit to 9-8. But WNE completed its comeback by winning six of the final seven points to stun the Nor’easters.
“They played smart in that third set. They kept their composure. They kept coming at us. They won fair and square, really,” said L’Heureux. “It’s very disappointing. It’s going to take a while to get over that.”
—Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323.
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