SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University volleyball team lost a three-set Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference contest on the road Friday night to Shippensburg University 25-14, 25-17, 25-23.
 
With the loss, Slippery Rock's record drops to 9-14 on the season overall and 6-8 in the PSAC. The PSAC Central leading Raiders improved to 21-5 overall and 11-3 in league matches with the win.
 
The Raiders' dominance over SRU early in each set proved to be the difference on Friday, as Shippensburg did not trail at any point during the entire match thanks in no small part to its early success in each set.
 
Senior Shayla Ray paced The Rock with eight kills with freshman Gabby Huck (six kills), sophomore Stephanie Jacobsen (five kills) and junior Kaley Fucci (five kills) rounding out The Rock's top attackers.
 
Junior Erinn Kahoe accounted for a match-best five blocks while junior Zoe Rivet made 17 digs to go with a team-high 29 assists. Sophomore Jalyn Willard posted 15 digs of her own as well as serving one of The Rock's two aces on Friday; the other ace belonged to senior Beth Stumpf.
 
Shippensburg held advantages over SRU in attack percentage (.145-.045), aces (8-2), digs (71-67) and blocks (11-5). Kendall Johnson compiled 10 kills and five blocks to lead the Raiders.
 
Slippery Rock will look to rebound from Friday's loss with a victory 1 p.m. Saturday at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
SET 1 - A 6-2 run that included three Shippensburg aces proved too much for The Rock to overcome in the opener as the Raiders earned a 25-14 victory in the first set. Shippensburg ended the set with five aces in addition to holding SRU to an attack percentage of just .103.
 
SET 2 – The Raiders took 10 of the second set's first 12 points and never looked back on the way to a 25-17 victory over The Rock to pull ahead 2-0. Following the big opening run by Shippensburg, SRU did manage to cut its deficit down to three points on three separate occasions, but could never quite completely overcome the early surge by SU.   
 
SET 3 – As was the case in the first two sets, Shippensburg once again sprung out to a sizable lead in the third set with seven straight points. SRU continued to fight and at one point cut its margin to just two points at 12-10 thanks to a 10-5 run following the Raiders' opening run, but Shippensburg was able to trade points with The Rock through the remainder of the set en route to the eventual 25-23 match-deciding win in the third set.



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