WEST LIBERTY, W. Va. - The Slippery Rock University volleyball team split a pair of matches Friday at the Atlantic Region crossover in West Liberty, West Virginia.
 
Slippery Rock (3-7) opened the day with a five-set (25-15, 23-25, 21-25, 25-23, 15-11) victory over host West Liberty University (7-5) before falling to Notre Dame College (8-4) in four sets (21-25, 25-14, 25-17, 25-16).
 
Erica Selfridge and Alayna Chizmar paced The Rock's attack Saturday. Selfridge tallied 32 kills over the two matches while Chizmar produced 22 kills. Taylor Fellers came off the bench to account for five of SRU's 13 aces Saturday.
 
Middle hitters Lauren Crytzer and Stephanie O'Donnell each had nine blocks on the day with Chelsie Wheeler close behind the pair at eight rejections in addition to her 17 kills.
 
MATCH 1: SRU 3 – WLU 2 (25-15, 23-25, 21-25, 25-23, 15-11)
Slippery Rock played its third five-set match in its last six contests as it battled back from 2-1 deficit to earn a quality victory over West Liberty. The victory was a well-rounded team effort in which a wide array of Rock athletes contributed.
 
Selfridge produced a personal-best 21 kills to go with 23 digs while Wheeler and Chizmar posted 11 and 10 kills, respectively, with Wheeler also tallying four blocks and Chizmar chipping in career-highs of 17 digs and three blocks.
 
Setter Logan Whitaker recorded Slippery Rock's first triple-double since 2007 with 11 kills, 44 assists and 17 digs all the while compiling a .360 attack percentage and two blocks. Feller, a reserve setter, served three aces.
 
Defensively, SRU was led by the duo of O'Donnell and Crytzer. O'Donnell finished the match at six blocks with Crytzer close behind with five rejections of her own. The block totals were career-highs for both O'Donnell and Crytzer.
 
Libero Kate Lachendro concluded the big statistical match for The Rock with a personal-best 37 digs.
 
After winning the opening set, 25-15, SRU dropped the second and third games to find itself in risk of losing a fifth straight match.
 
However, The Rock persevered and went on to claim the fourth set, 25-23, courtesy of a late 15-6 run. SRU and WLU then traded points for the opening half of the fifth set, but with the score even at 9-9 Slippery Rock proceeded to capture six of the contest's final eight points to claim the victory.
 
For the match, Slippery Rock held advantages over the Hilltoppers in attack percentage (.164-.100), kills (66-49) and digs (116-100). WLU edged SRU in aces (12-7) and total blocks (12-11).
 
MATCH 2: NDC 3 – SRU 1 (21-25, 25-14, 25-17, 25-16)
Slippery Rock carried over its momentum from the West Liberty match with a strong first set against Notre Dame by posting a .273 attack percentage on the way to a solid 25-21 victory. However, the Falcons answered back with consecutive 25-14, 25-17, 25-16 wins over the remainder of the match to capture the four-set triumph.
 
Chizmar followed up her double-double effort against West Liberty by matching her previous career-high in kills with 12 against Notre Dame in addition to 13 digs for her third double-double of the season.
 
Selfridge added 11 kills along with 19 digs while Whitaker and Wheeler rounded out The Rock's offensive attack with seven and six kills each. Whitaker also guided the offense with 28 assists.
 
Fellers continued her string of strong serving matches with a pair of aces against the Falcons. She now has six aces over The Rock's last three matches.
 
The trio of Crytzer, Wheeler and Whitaker all registered four blocks while Lachendro made a team-high 24 digs in the loss.
 
Slippery Rock closes out the Atlantic Region Crossover with two matches Saturday in Wheeling, West Virginia. SRU will first play host Wheeling University at 12 p.m. followed by a 4 p.m. contest against Fairmont State University.  



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