MORRISVILLE, N.Y. (August 30, 2025) – The Western New England women's volleyball team saw sophomore Léa Barber come up with an outstanding 23 kills that led to a 3-1 victory in the morning match over Thomas College, but the hosting Mustangs of SUNY Morrisville would defeat Western New England by a final score of 3-1 in the afternoon match to come up with a 2-2 record for the weekend's tournament.

Records:

• Western New England: 2-2
• Thomas College: 0-3
• SUNY Morrisville:4-0

How it Happened (vs. Thomas College)

Opening Set: 

• A back-and-forth opening ten points of the match would see the Golden Bears and Terriers fight to a 5-5 tie. Léa Barber started the match on time with a pair of early kills.  Thomas College would run three points in a row from there, taking their largest lead of the set, three points, 8-5. From there, it would a pair of attacking errors and from the Terriers and Barber, who continued to lead the Golden Bears, throwing down back-to-back-to-back kills to give Western New England a 12-9 lead. 
• Thomas would inch back and tie the match at 12 before a run of ten of 11 points going Western New England's way. Abby Thomas would put together excellent service for the Golden Bears while Barber continued her kill streak, notching eight in the opening set. 

• Olivia Long put down WNE's final kill of the set while another attacking error from the Terriers would end the match in favor of Western New England, 25-16. WNE hit .109% from the floor in the set. Abby Thomas recorded five set assists to pace Western New England to the opening set victory. 

Second Set:

• Thomas College was able to sneak out a 4-1 lead early in the second set behind a pair of Western New England errors. WNE would fight back with the next four points, however, including a kill from Sage Pycz to take a 5-4 lead. Thomas would quickly regain the lead and would never lose it again from there, putting down nine of ten points to take a commanding 13-6 lead. 
• Western New England Head Coach Matt Lein would be forced to take a timeout following the run from the Terriers, but his group would be resilient and respond with the next six points, five of which came on errors by Thomas, trailing just 13-12. In a match of runs, Thomas would fight back and lead 17-14 before finishing the second set with the final four of five points to down WNE 25-19. 

• WNE picked up eight attacking errors and hit under .000% from the floor for the first time in a set this season. Thomas managed just seven kills, but it was enough to come up with the second set win. 

Third Set:

• Western New England would dominate the third set of the match despite Thomas opening with the first point of the match and keeping it close through a 7-7 score after 14 points. WNE would begin to pull away after three straight kills from Léa Barber, who continued to impress for the Golden Bears in the morning match. WNE would take a 17-9 lead following back-to-back service aces from Barber. 
• The Terriers would not go quietly in the match, scoring seven straight points from there, getting back within one, 17-16. Charlei Henkel would stop the Terriers' run with a kil of her own from Abby Thomas to give Western New England some breathing room again. The Golden Bears would then rip off the final seven points of the set to come up with a much-needed 25-17 win, taking a 2-1 lead in the match. 
• WNE smacked down 11 kills in the third set and collected five service aces that aided their play. Both Rachel Critz and Ariana Barbosa were credited with a solo block each in the set. 

Fourth Set:

• Western New England would never trail in the fourth set of the match, which was the final set in a 3-1 victory for the Golden Bears. The first five points of the set came as kills as Barber, Hankel, and Rachel Critz were able to throw down early points for Western New England. With the Golden Bears ahead 7-5, they would score 14 of the next 15 points in the match to take it to the Terriers, leading 21-6, a 15-point margin, their largest lead of the season through three matches. 
• 13 points of 22 would come as kills for WNE, as the Golden Bears would find their rhythm in the final set to come up with the win. Brianna Manes and Katie Garland smashed down kills in the final points of the match that saw WNE take the fourth set by a final score of 25-11 and would come up with a 3-1 match victory. 
• In their best set of the morning, Western New England hit .237% from the floor and held Thomas to under a .000% hitting percentage. WNE picked up 14 kills in the set, led by their leading outside hitter Léa Barber, who collected a match high 23 kills overall. 

Inside the Lines:

• Barber sent down a career-high 23 kills in the win, hitting .300% from the floor, while also collecting 32 digs and six service aces to pace the way for WNE. 
• 12 total Golden Bears came up with kills in the match while 13 came up with at least one dig, including the aforementioned 32 from Barber, 22 from Lauren Chagnon, 15 from Deana Baez, and 12 from Abby Thomas. 
• Abby Thomas picked up 18 set assists for the Golden Bears in the match, while Baez picked up 16 of her own. 
• The Golden Bears recorded 43 kills as a team, hitting just a tick below .100% for the match. 

How it Happened (vs. SUNY Morrisville): 

Opening Set:

• WNE got off to a slow start in the opening set, seeing the Mustangs pick up the first five of six points. The Golden Bears would get within three points of the tie at 9-6 after Katie Garland picked up a kill. 
• SUNY Morrisville would stay ahead of the Golden Bears through the midway point of the opening set, but WNE would fight back with a run of eight of 11 points going their way to get back in the match, getting back within one, 17-16, following a Charlei Henkel service ace.
• With the score 19-18 in favor of Morrisville, the Mustangs would rip off the next six points and came away with a 25-18 win over the Golden Bears. WNE had just six kills in the opening set, hitting just .030% from the floor. 

Second Set:

• In what turned out to be a thrilling second set, it would open with Western New England leading 8-7 following four straight points, including a pair of service aces from Henkel and a Rachel Critz kill. 
• The Mustangs would climb back into the match with three straight to lead 18-14 on back-to-back attacking errors from the Golden Bears. WNE continued to battle back, getting kills from Critz and Abby Thomas to regain the lead, taking a 20-19 edge. 
• With set point at 24-23 for WNE, SUNY Morrisville would grab the next two points to flip the set-to-set point in favor of the home team. The two teams would battle point for point, taking the match all the way down to nearly 76 points in total before three straight points from Western New England, including a kill to end it from Léa Barber would come up with the 39-37 victory in the set to tie the match at one. 
• In a thrilling second set, Morrisville whacked down 26 kills to WNE's ten, but four service aces, two blocks, and WNE would power through to come up with the win. Morrisville picked up nine service errors to their downfall in the set. 

Third Set:

• The Mustangs bounced right back in the third set, never letting Western New England come up with a lead. A 9-1 run in the middle of the set would push SUNY Morrisville past Western New England. 
• WNE would attempt to climb back into the match late on kills from Barber and Henkel, but it would not be enough as the Mustangs had the last point to take the third set 25-18. 
• WNE continued to hit at a low percentage for the match, coming up with just a .107% clip on attacks for the third set, trailing 2-1 in the match. 

Fourth Set:

• Looking to extend the match to a fifth set, Western New England got off to a slow start, seeing Morrisville come up with five of the first seven points overall. Despite that, three straight attacking errors from the Mustangs would be to Western New England's benefit, taking a 7-6 lead. Morrisville had loads of answers on Saturday, including a response to WNE's six straight points that put them ahead 13-9. 
•  Nine of the next 12 points would go Morrisville's way, putting the Mustangs on top 20-18 in the set. The Golden Bears would not be able to fight back and would drop the fourth set by a final score of 25-21. 
• Morrisville's high-octane offense had 14 more kills in the set, while WNE mustered up just six and hit .049% from the floor. WNE would fall 3-1 in the match. 

Inside the Lines:

• Léa Barber was the lone Golden Bear in double figures in kills with ten, hitting .143% for the match. Barber also collected ten digs. 
• Charlei Henkel came up with six service aces in the match. 
• WNE hit .075% from the floor as a team, collecting just 30 kills overall. Morrisville picked up 61 kills, led by Isabelle Eskierka, who had 32 of those. 
• WNE splits the opening weekend at the Mustang Tournament, winning a pair of four-set matches while falling in today's four-setter and yesterday's five-setter to Alfred State. 

Coach's Corner

Coach Matt Lein was asked for a comment on the weekend's performance as a whole. "I think this was an overall successful weekend. Our whole team progressed throughout the weekend that ended with an epic showdown with host SUNY Morrisville. Every member of our roster was able to see the court, which I think is an awesome way to start our season. We have an extremely young roster; we will need to continue to work on setter/hitter connections as well as communication, but the moments that we had where those things were clicking, we looked pretty unstoppable," Lein stated.

Up Next on the Schedule:

• The Golden Bears will head to Amherst College next weekend of three matches over two days, opening with Oswego State on Friday, September 5 at 5:00 PM.