By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The defending champion Bridgewater State University volleyball team is back in the final round of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament.

The top-seeded Bears were pushed to five sets by fifth-seeded Worcester State University on Thursday night before winning a semifinal-round match, 3-2, at the Tinsley Center.

BSU (16-4) had fallen behind, 1-0, and after taking a 2-1 lead, lost the fourth set before prevailing over the Lancers (10-21) with a dominant deciding set.

The Bears lost, 26-24, to open the match before winning, 25-13 and 25-13, then lost, 25-23. In the deciding set, BSU jumped to an early lead and eliminated Worcester State, 15-4.

The victory sends the Bears into Saturday's championship match at 2 p.m. at the Tinsley Center against either second-seeded Westfield State or third-seeded Framingham State.

BSU rallied to defeat Westfield State, 3-2, to win the 2024 championship, the Bears' first MASCAC tourney title since 2008.

The Bears are now 8-2 against Worcester State in conference tourney games, breaking a two-game losing streak against the Lancers.

BSU went 8-0 to win the MASCAC and only went five sets once in the conference, a 3-2 win over Westfield State.

Junior Lily Welch (Hanson, Mass.) matched her career-high with 17 kills to go along with 14 digs, six block assists and pair of aces for the Bears while posting a .441 hitting percentage.

Senior Kim Gowell (Durham, N.H.) added 10 kills and six digs while sophomore Charlotte Sullivan (Hyannis, Mass.) contributed 10 digs, eight kills, four block assists and a pair of aces.

Junior Xin Ai Robinson (Kaiserslautern, Germany) had a match-best 23 assists and four aces as well as six digs while sophomore Natalie Fredriksen (Plymouth, Mass.) added 20 assists and eight digs.

Senior Meaghan Coutu (Brookline, N.H.) had nine kills and a .500 hitting percentage while junior Ava Crane (Dartmouth, Mass.) had six kills, six digs and two aces, and junior Moriah Baptista (Dartmouth, Mass.) had 10 digs and two aces.

For Worcester State, sophomore Katherine Crateau (North Andover, Mass.) had 24 digs and junior Michelle Iannacito (Bronx, N.Y.) added 21 assists.

Sophomore Beatrice Gamboa-Estrella (Simi Valley, Calif.) contributed 14 kills and 12 digs.

With the match tied at 2, BSU opened the deciding set on a 10-1 run to take control.

The Bears were up, 6-0, as Welch and Coutu had kills and Crane had an ace to go with three attack errors.

Two Welch kills and an ace by Sullivan helped make it 10-1, and the lead went to 14-3 on kills by Welch and Gowell and an ace by Welch. A kill by Crane finished the match.

Worcester State rallied from a 21-17 deficit to win the first set.

It had been tied at 15 when two service errors and a Welch kill gave BSU an 18-15 advantage. After holding the 21-17 lead following an attack error and service error, the Bears were outscored, 9-3, and lost the set.

Two attack errors and three kills, two by senior Katie Cueva (Tewksbury, Mass.), clinched the set for Worcester State.

BSU responded by opening the second set on an 11-3 run as Robinson, Welch and Coutu had kills to go with aces by Baptista and Fredriksen.

Kills by Crane and senior Alexis Starks (Milford, Mass.) plus a Robinson ace put the Bears up, 16-6, and the lead was stretched to 20-8 after kills by Sullivan and Coutu and a Crane ace.

It was a Gowell kill that was the deciding point to even the match.

BSU also started strong in the third set, opening an 11-2 lead as Welch had three kills and Gowell two.

It was 19-5 after Sullivan had a pair of kills to go with kills by Crane and Fredriksen and an ace by Robinson.

The Bears led, 23-12, afte a Gowell kill and finished the set on an attack error and a Baptista ace.

BSU led the fourth set, 16-14, but the Lancers outscored the Bears, 7-1, for a 22-17 advantage.

The Bears was one point away from losing the set at 24-21, but they scored two points on an attack error and a Crane kill.

But a kill by senior Kate Stedronsky (Sea Girt, N.J.) sent the match to a fifth set.

The Bears had the edge in kills (58-38), assists (52-37), aces (13-8), digs (80-66), blocks (7-3) and hitting percentage (.267-.051). The two teams combined for 26 serving errors (Bears 15, Lancers 11).

During the regular season, BSU defeated Worcester State, 3-0.