BEHREND, HILBERT ADVANCE TO WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL SEMIFINALS
No. 3 Penn State Behrend and No. 4 Hilbert College each earned victories in the first round of the AMCC Women's Volleyball Championship Tournament to advance to the semifinal round, slated for Friday evening.
No. 4 Hilbert d. No. 5 La Roche, 3-0
Hilbert earned a straight-set sweep (25–14, 25–19, 25–23) over La Roche University in front of a lively home crowd at the Brad Hafner Recreation Center.
With the win, the 20-10 Hawks advance to the AMCC semifinals for the first time in program history after defeating the 7-16 Redhawks for the third time in Hamburg this year.
Hilbert freshman Lindsay Madigan paced the offense with 13 kills, two blocks, and 11 assists, while Molly McKinnon added 11 kills and Michaela Rice chipped in seven kills and two service aces. Setter Jessee Jonathan dished out 20 assists and recorded 11 digs, and Jade Schiller anchored the defense with a match-high 24 digs.
La Roche was led by Kalli Grine and Megan Bologna, who each tallied eight kills, while Bologna also served up three aces. Defensively, Kaci DePalma collected 20 digs to keep the Redhawks in contention.
Hilbert stacked nine points together in the opening set to pull away with the win and used another 7-1 run in the second set which created enough room for the victory. La Roche made things interesting in the third set; after trailing 11-4 they inched their way back into the game and took their only lead of the day 23-22 off a four-point run. Hilbert was gifted a pair of attacking errors before McKinnon secured the final match point off a hard hit that went deep off La Roche fingers.
Hilbert will travel to Cresson, PA to battle the host, No. 1 Mount Aloysius College this Saturday, November 15th at 2 pm.
No. 3 Penn State Behred d. No. 6 Pitt-Bradford 3-1
The Penn State Behrend women's volleyball team advances to the AMCC semifinals with a 3-1 win over Pitt-Bradford on Wednesday night.
The Lions posted their second win over Pitt-Bradford this season in four sets. The Lions had three players in double-digit kills and digs, as Cadence Jones and Alani Salas-Garcia each registered a double-double, while Kylie Fehlman added 14 kills and seven blocks. Jones led with 15 kills and 19 digs, while Salas-Garcia had a team-best 14 digs and 12 kills. Despite the eight attack errors in the first set, Behrend held the Panthers to just five kills for the 25-18 decision.
Pitt-Bradford had match point four times and the Lions had two in the second set.
Tied at 29-all, the Panthers took advantage of an attack error and then got a kill from Alycia Wilson down the middle to even the match at 1-all. Fehlman had seven kills on 11 attempts with two errors in the second set.
Behrend never trailed in the third for a 25-18 win. Jones recorded six kills and hit .385, and Salas-Garcia posted five kills in a 25-15 fourth set
Behrend returns to action on Saturday against Penn State Altoona at host Mt. Aloysius. Match begins at 4:30 p.m.