New London — When Aylene Ilkson played volleyball at Springfield College, she had a word for Coast Guard Academy's style of play.

"Annoying," she said.

"They just kept coming back, coming back, coming back."

Now, Ilkson is in her second season as Coast Guard's head coach. The Bears, ranked seventh in the New England Division III poll, have a five-game winning streak and remained unbeaten in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference with a 3-0 victory Thursday night against WPI. The Bears have seven talented freshmen, who came to the first day of practice eager despite the fact they had just finished their toughest day of the academy's Swab Summer.

And Ilkson has a different word for it. Fearless.

"They play such a great role. They do anything you ask them," Ilkson said of the freshmen. "We could be playing the No. 1 team in the country and they'd say, 'Great, here we go.' It's just another match. They like to stay loose. ... It's a low-maintenance group, which I like."

Ilkson said that she is trying to get Coast Guard (10-2, 4-0) to become more defensively oriented this season.

The Bears beat WPI 25-18, 25-18, 25-19, taking some time to settle in during the first set before grabbing the momentum with a series of decisive blocks, led by 6-foot sophomore Susan West, to score five straight points and force a WPI timeout. Coast Guard scored nine straight later in the set behind the serving of freshman Michelle Hernandez and West tipped one over the net to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.

"It doesn't go noticed, the work you do for blocking," said West, who finished with eight kills and a hitting percentage of .538. "You have to be able to react to the setter and what direction she's going and make it there, not guess."

"We spend a lot of time on our block," Ilkson said. "We know our strengths blocking-wise. It's a good thing to be able to take away momentum."

Coast Guard's biggest win to date came last week against fellow NEWMAC team Springfield, Ilkson's alma mater. The Pride were ranked first in New England before the Bears upset the defending league champion 18-25, 25-18, 25-21, 17-25, 16-14. Ashley Dumont, a junior middle blocker, finished with 18 kills in that match and was later named the NEWMAC Player of the Week.

In the five-game winning streak, three of Coast Guard's victories have gone five sets.

"We never backed down, never went away," said Ilkson of what the Bears' strength was against Springfield. "We never thought of, 'Let's roll over for them.'"

"The effort we put in at practice helped the pace of our game stay pretty fast," West said.

Dumont added 10 kills for the Bears against WPI (8-7, 0-4), while Hernandez led the way with 10 digs and fellow freshman Michelle McGill added nine. Maggie Hine, Coast Guard's junior setter, finished with 24 assists.

Coast Guard trailed 14-13 in the third set, but went on to score five straight points, four behind the serve of Emily Gilland, for a 21-17 edge, and the Bears got two kills by 6-0 freshman Emma Saunders to help put the match away.

Ilkson's team will add a pair of matches today against Richard Stockton and NYU at the Stevens Invitational in Hoboken, N.J., before facing Ramapo and Stevens at the tournament Saturday. Ilkson believes that will help her team prepare for Tuesday's matchup at Babson, which shares first place in the NEWMAC.

Coast Guard, the No. 6 seed in last year's league tournament, upset No. 3 Babson 3-1 to reach the semifinals before falling to Wellesley.

"It's interesting," West said. "It's a younger team dynamic, so the leadership falls on the juniors and sophomores. We all have nothing to lose."

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday