DANBURY, Conn. - The Western Connecticut State University volleyball team, which posted a regular-season record of 19-6 and finished tied with Eastern Connecticut for fourth place in the Little East Conference (LEC) with a 5-3 mark against conference teams, has qualified for the six-team Little East Championship Tournament for the 29th time.  The Wolves, coached by Don Ferguson (14th Season), settled for the No. 5 seed in the tournament due to their head-to-head loss at Eastern Connecticut on October 8 and will visit those No. 5-seeded Warriors (17-7, 5-3) in the opening round for the third season in a row on Tuesday, November 11 at 6 p.m.  WestConn bested the Warriors, 3-0, in the 2023 LEC First Round and, 3-1, last year.  Both of those playoff games took place in Danbury.

The winner of WestConn's quarterfinal match will play at top-seeded UMass Dartmouth (21-7, 7-1) on Thursday.  Tuesday's other first round match features No. 3-seeded Plymouth State (21-7, 6-2) and No. 6-seeded Keene State (14-13, 3-5) and that winner heads to No. 2-seeded UMass Boston (15-12, 6-2) for a semifinal match on Thursday.  The Little East Championship Finals will take place on Saturday at the site of the highest remaining seed.  The winner of the LEC Championship Tournament will determine the league's automatic qualifier for the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament.  WestConn recovered from an 0-2 start to win 12 of its next 13 matches for a 12-3 mark on October 1.  The Wolves suffered three consecutive conference losses in seven days but rallied to defeat UMass Boston in a marathon, 3-2 decision to start a seven-match winning streak heading into postseason.

WestConn is solid offensively and defensively, as the Wolves lead the conference in digs with 17.7 per set and are second in kills with 12.09 per set.  Junior OH Julia Stoliker (Red Hook, N.Y.) tops the league with 3.73 kills per set and adds 40 aces, while freshman RS Hallie Robillard (Middletown, Conn.) is 10th in kills with 2.33 per set.  Senior S Maggie Ferguson (Southbury, Conn.) tops the LEC by a large margin with 9.50 assists per set and is also tied for seventh in the conference with a team-high 0.50 service aces per set.  Senior L Jersey Jones (Middletown, N.Y.) paces the Wolves defense with 4.52 digs per set (4th in LEC) to go with 30 aces, while Stoliker, Ferguson and senior OH Sydney Slupatchuk (New Milford, Conn.) each have over 250 digs this fall.  Slupatchuk also has 171 kills and 23 aces this fall, while classmate Delia Clouden (Newtown, Conn.) tops the Wolves with 47 blocks.