WHEELING, W. Va. – The Slippery Rock University volleyball team defeated Fairmont State University and lost to No. 14 Wheeling Jesuit University on day one of the Atlantic Region crossover Friday in Wheeling, West Virginia.
 
SRU began the day with a convincing 3-1 (25-22, 25-17, 14-25, 25-18) victory against Fairmont State before falling to the nationally ranked Cardinals 3-0 (25-13, 27-25, 25-19). The split moves The Rock's record to 3-3 on the season.
 
Friday continued an early-season trend for The Rock of splitting matches. So far in 2018, SRU has played six total matches over three days and has come away with a win and a loss on each day.
 
Senior Beth Stumpf led The Rock Friday, totaling 27 kills over two matches. Freshman Gabby Huck was second on the team in kills on the day after coming off the bench to register 23 kills during the two contests.
 
Senior Shayla Ray finished day one of the two-day crossover event with eight blocks to bring her team season-high total to 24. Sophomore Erinn Kahoe contributed six blocks to The Rock's cause as well on Friday.
 
Sophomore defensive specialist Jalyn Willard tallied 33 digs and three aces while setter Zoe Rivet produced 48 assists to round out SRU's top contributors on the day.
 
Slippery Rock continues Atlantic Region crossover play Saturday in West Liberty, West Virginia against the University Charleston (12 p.m.) and host West Liberty University (4 p.m.).
 
Atlantic Region Crossover Match 1
Slippery Rock 3 – Fairmont State 1
25-22, 25-17, 14-25, 25-18
Wheeling, W. Va. | McDonough Center
 
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
• Stumpf led all players with a match-high 17 kills. She produced an impeccable .424 hitting percentage in the match (17-3-33).
• Huck followed up her 16-kill effort in The Rock's five-set win against Charleston on Sept. 1 with a 12-kill performance against the Fighting Falcons.
• Kahoe made a team-best four blocks (one solo / three assisted) in addition to totaling seven kills. The senior duo of Shayla Ray and and Kelsey Boyle added three blocks each as well.
• Rivet and freshman Lauryn Rocassin guided The Rock attack with 24 and 23 assists, respectively, with Rivet also making 11 digs for her first double-double of 2018.
• Willard served up a match-high three aces while making a Rock-best 20 digs.
• SRU closed out the match holding advantages over FSU in attack percentage (.210 - .150), blocks (7.5 – 6.0) and aces (6 – 4)
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Set 1 – Fairmont State jumped out to an early 6-2 lead, but Slippery Rock was slowly able to whittle down its deficit and eventually tie the set at 9-9. FSU answered The Rock's surge with one of its own to jump ahead 13-11, but SRU proceeded to put the opening set away with a commanding 9-4 run to open up a 20-15 advantage it would never relinquish on the way to a 25-22 victory. Slippery Rock had a .286 attack percentage in the opener. Stumpf made five kills in the first set.
 
Set 2 – SRU and FSU traded points early, but with the score tied 11-11, The Rock took 10 of the next 13 points to push the lead out to 21-14 as they cruised to a 25-17 win. Slippery Rock continued to post a solid attack percentage in the second set at .235 while holding Fairmont State to a .000 hitting percentage (10-10-40).
 
Set 3 – Anything that could go wrong for The Rock seemed to in the third set as Fairmont State avoided the shutout defeat by scoring 20 of the sets first 30 points en route to a 25-14 triumph.
 
Set 4 – However, Slippery Rock regrouped from its subpar third set to close out the match strong in the fourth via a 25-18 win. The second half of the set completely belonged to The Rock as SRU rallied back from a 15-12 deficit by rattling off an impressive 14-6 run for the victory-clinching 25-18 win. Stumpf (six) and Huck (five) combined for 11 kills in the final set.
 
Atlantic Region Crossover Match 2
Wheeling Jesuit 3 - Slippery Rock 0
25-13, 27-25, 25-19
Wheeling, W. Va. | McDonough Center
 
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
• Huck finished the WJU match with a team-high 11 kills in addition to three blocks defensively.
• Following her dominant showing against FSU, Stumpf had her second consecutive double-digit kill outing of 2018 with 10 to go with 15 digs in the double-double effort.
• Ray had five blocks, one off of matching her single-match season-high.
• Sophomore Stephanie Jacobsen produced eight kills on 25 attempts with just one error for a .280 attack percentage.
• Rivet assisted on 24 of Slippery Rock's 34 kills.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Set 1 – Slippery Rock was unable to overcome a -.152 attack percentage (5-10-33) and an 8-2 Wheeling Jesuit run to start the match in its 25-13 opening-set loss to the Cardinals.
 
Set 2 – Slippery Rock displayed dramatic improvement from the first set to the second as it went toe-to-toe with the best team in the Atlantic Region and eventually opened up a 24-21 advantage. However, the Cardinals were able to rally with a 3-1 spurt to end the set with a 27-25 win and pull ahead in the match 2-0. Eight of Huck's 11 kills came in the second set.
 
Set 3 – The Rock built a 17-13 lead to start the third set before Wheeling Jesuit was once again able to bounce back with a 12-2 match-ending run. The Cardinals earned their 25-19 third-set victory by scoring the set's final six points.
 

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