JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University volleyball team recorded a convincing 3-0 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division victory on the road at Pitt-Johnstown Saturday.
The Rock opened the match with back-to-back 25-12 victories over the first and second sets before completing the triumph with a tight 25-23 win in the third set.
Saturday's win improves Slippery Rock's record to 5-10 overall and 2-2 in league matches while the Mountain Cats drop to 7-9 overall and 1-3 in the PSAC West following the loss.
SRU controlled virtually every facet of Saturday's match, finishing with advantages over UPJ in total kills (44-24), attack percentage (.257-.124), aces (9-1) and total digs (49-29).
Individually,
Abigail Koeller was dominant throughout the match as the senior closed the contest with a near career-high 18 kills on a stellar .519 attack percentage to go with two aces and five digs. Koeller's 18 kills were the most by a Rock athlete in a match this season.
Erica Selfridge added nine kills and two aces as well with
Chelsie Wheeler (5),
Abigail Nigon (4),
Alayna Chizmar (4) and
Mary Berger (3) rounding out The Rock's kill leaders. Chizmar also served one ace while Berger and Nigon totaled one block apiece as well.
Maria Lucas and
Jaeden Yost both posted two aces each with Yost also distributing 18 assists. Libero
Kate Lachendro made a match-high 21 digs to round out SRU's leaders.
The opening two sets were never in doubt as Slippery Rock jumped out to commanding leads of 12-5 and 23-7, respectively, en route to the matching 25-12 wins to send the contest into the third set with SRU primed for the sweep.
The third set was a back-and-forth game with Slippery Rock holding a narrow 23-22 lead in the late stages of the bout. Coming out of a Slippery Rock timeout, SRU closed the set out by taking advantage of a pair of UPJ errors for a match-deciding 25-23 victory.
Slippery Rock steps out of PSAC West competition when it travels to Point Park University for a 7 p.m. match Sept. 27.
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