By Jim Fenton

KEENE, N.H. -- The Bridgewater State University volleyball team had a successful start to the 2025 season.

The Bears, coming off their first trip to the NCAA tournament since 2008, rallied for a 3-2 victory over Keene State College Tuesday night at the Spaulding Gym.

BSU dropped the first set, 25-20, won the second, 25-9, and lost the third set, 25-21. The Bears evened the match with a 25-18 win in the fourth set and prevailed with a 15-10 victory in the decisive set.

Junior Lily Welch (Hanson, Mass.) had 17 kills, four aces, four blocks and 10 digs to lead BSU in its first meeting with the Owls since 2017.

Junior Xin Ai Robinson (Kaiserslautern, Germany) contributed 21 assists and 14 digs while senior Kim Gowell (Durham, N.H.) added 14 kills and had a .333 hitting percentage.

Junior Ava Crane (Dartmouth, Mass.) had a team-best 15 digs while junior Moriah Baptista (Dartmouth, Mass.) added 12 digs.

Sophomore Natalie Fredriksen (Plymouth, Mass.) chipped in with 14 assists and sophomore Gracey Gorman (Weymouth, Mass.) had a team-leading hitting percentage of .379.

For Keene State (2-2), junior Alexis Small (Londonderry, N.H.) had 13 assists and four aces while senior Gigi Stake (Bedford, N.H.) added 15 digs.

Senior Annaliese Rudberg (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) and sophomore Marina Miller (Pleasant Hill, Calif.) had eight kills each.

With the match even at 2-2, the Bears fell behind, 5-3, in the fifth set. A Crane kill capped a 4-0 run as BSU took a 7-5 lead.

After the set was even at 8, BSU outscored Keene State, 7-2, the rest of the way. Welch had two kills in that run while Crane and Gowell added one each.

The Bears held a 6-5 lead in the first set after an ace by Welch. The set was even for the 10th time at 14-14 before the Owls outscored BSU, 6-2, for a 20-16 lead.

A Welch kill pulled the Bears within 21-19, but Keene State scored four of the final five points to take the set.

The second set was even at 2-2 before BSU went on a 14-1 run to take a 16-3 advantage. There were six straight attack errors and two kills by Gowell in that spree.

After trailing, 19-6, the Owls moved within 21-9, but the Bears scored four points in a row, capped by a Welch kill.

BSU jumped to a 7-2 lead in the third set and held a 14-9 edge after an ace by Baptista and a kill by sophomore Charlotte Sullivan (Hyannis, Mass.).

The set was tied at 15, 16, 17 and 18 before the Owls went in front, 21-18. BSU got within a point, only to have Keene State score four of the last five points.

The Bears never trailed in the fourth set, moving in front, 8-4, on a Gowell kill. Another kill by Gowell made it 16-11, but the Owls closed within 17-16 on a service error.

The Bears then scored six straight points and ended the set on a service error.

BSU, which won the MASCAC tournament last season, finished 13-10. It lost at nationally ranked Johns Hopkins in the NCAAs.

The Bears had a 42-28 edge in assists and an 11-9 advantage in aces with a 51-34 lead in kills.

The Bears play at the Bonnie May Invitational in Northampton, Mass., on Saturday. BSU faces Vermont State Lyndon at noon and takes on host Smith College at 2 p.m.

Keene State (2-2) plays in Maine on Saturday against Bates College at 11 a.m. and the University of New England at 1 p.m.