PITTSBURGH - The Slippery Rock University volleyball team earned its second consecutive win following a three-set victory (25-18, 25-17, 27-25) on the road Tuesday night at Point Park University.
 
The non-conference victory improves The Rock's record to 6-10 overall in 2022 while Point Park drops to 9-4 on the year with the loss.
 
SRU followed up a recent three-set win at Pitt-Johnstown with another solid all-around team effort Tuesday as The Rock closed the contest holding advantages over Point Park in kills (46-36), attack percentage (.233-.144), aces (5-0) and digs (67-61). Both teams finished the evening at eight total blocks.
 
Erica Selfridge paced SRU in the win with a team-high 13 kills on a .243 attack percentage to go with one ace and one block.
 
For the third time in The Rock's last four matches, Abigail Koeller recorded a double-digit kill total as part of an 11-kill, 12-dig, two-block double-double that included a stellar .357 attack percentage.
 
Alayna Chizmar and Mary Berger rounded out Slippery Rock's attack leaders with nine and six kills, respectively. Jaeden Yost had 19 assists and Peytan Gullickson chipped in 18 to guide The Rock's offense.
 
Maria Lucas produced two of SRU's five aces in the victory for what was her fourth multi-ace match of the season. Chizmar and Kate Lachendro joined Lucas and Selfridge with aces of their own as well.
 
Defensively, Abigail Nigon tallied four blocks with Berger, Koeller and Chizmar all totaling two blocks apiece while Lachendro made a match-best 26 digs – her third highest single-match total of 2022.
 
With the opening set tied 8-8, Slippery Rock used a 7-2 run to take a 15-10 lead and force a timeout. Point Park's break in the action did not alter The Rock's success as SRU took four of the next five points to force yet another Pioneer timeout that once again did little to slow Slippery Rock's momentum in an eventual 25-18 victory.  
 
Selfridge and Koeller combined for nine kills in the first set.
 
Point Park played The Rock close in the early stages of the second set, but with SRU leading 11-9, Slippery Rock proceeded to rattle off three consecutive points to open a five-point advantage it would never come close to relinquishing as the lead grew to as many as nine points on the way to a 25-17 win.
 
Three of Slippery Rock's five aces in the match came in the second set courtesy of Lucas, Chizmar and Lachendro.
 
SRU's hopes for another sweep appeared to be dashed early in the third set after Point Park jumped out to a seemingly safe 12-3 lead. However, Slippery Rock re-grouped from the Pioneer run to capture 13 of the following 17 points, pulling even with the home team at 16-16.
 
The two teams went on to trade points for the remainder of the match until Selfridge completed The Rock's comeback bid with back-to-back kills for a 27-25 match-deciding victory.
 
Madison Sima and Melissa Schroeder had 15 kills and six blocks, respectively, for Point Park in the loss.  
 
Slippery Rock returns to Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division competition with back-to-back home matches at Morrow Field House 7 p.m. Friday against Gannon University and 2 p.m. Saturday versus Mercyhurst University.
 
 
 
 

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