BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – The University of Bridgeport Purple Knights have been the number one team in the region all season and Friday night, in the semifinals of the NCAA Division II East Regional at Bridgeport's Harvey Hubbell Gymnasium, they showed the Bentley University Falcons their power.

Bentley put up a battle, but in the end, fell to the 26-2 Purple Knights in four sets (25-16, 16-25, 25-18, 25-17) in the finale of a 19-12 season.

Bridgeport, which will host second-seeded New Haven Saturday in the regional final with an Elite Eight trip on the line, featured graduate student Biljana Savic (Novi Sad, Serbia) and she lived up to her Daktronics East Region Player of the Year billing. Savic filled the stat sheet with 15 kills with a .379 success rate, and also provided the Purple Knights with 18 assists, two aces, eight digs and three blocks.

Bentley received 10 kills and a .500 hitting percentage from Kaleigh Sullivan (Naples, Fla./Harley School (N.Y.)), one of six Falcon seniors who were playing their final match.

The Purple Knights exploded out of the gate with four kills (including two by Savic), an ace from junior Martina Santia (Sezze, Italy) and a Falcon attack error resulting in a 6-0 lead before Bentley could get on the scoreboard. The Falcons closed to within eight at 24-16 before a kill by senior Ying Shen (Huhhot, China) gave UB a 1-0 victory.

Bentley turned the tables in the second, winning by the same score as they lost the first, 25-16. The Falcons turned a 5-4 deficit into a 14-7 lead, and added to the advantage with five straight points to make it 20-10. That second surge included an ace from freshman Shannon Kelly (Hyde Park, N.Y./Franklin D. Roosevelt HS) and kills by junior Jaci Buscher (Lakewood, Colo./Green Mountain HS) and senior Savannah Dominguez (Miami, Fla./Palmer Trinity School). Buscher ended the set with an ace to even the match at one apiece.

The Falcons continued the momentum into the third set, building leads of 9-6 and 13-12 before the Purple Knights regained their form from the first set. They closed with an 11-3 burst with a kill by Frida Randen (Sodertajle, Sweden) producing set point.

Bridgeport took charge of the fourth set with a run of six unanswered making it 14-6. The Purple Knights stretched it to 17-7 before a late Falcon burst, capped by a Sullivan kill, brought it to 24-17.  Savic put an end to things with her 15th kill of the night bringing an end to the Bentley season.

Dominguez had a solid game, finishing with eight kills and six blocks. Senior Tatiana Froehlich (Newton, Mass./Newton North HS) put down six kills and made two blocks, and classmate Alex Tator (Los Angeles, Calif./Marlborough School) provided 25 assists, eight digs, four aces and two blocks.

In addition to the 15 kills from Savic, Bridgeport received a dozen, with four aces, from junior Sarah Rosa (Itajuba, Brazil).

Bridgeport hit .301 and served 12 aces while Bentley finished at .120 with nine aces.

It was the final match in a Bentley uniform for six seniors who played significant roles in the team's success over the last four years: Lauren Colosanti (Northville, Mich./Northville HS), Froehlich, Dominguez, Sullivan, Tator and Simone Silvera (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook HS).