CALIFORNIA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University volleyball team recorded its third victory in its last four matches with a four-set Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division win on the road Friday at California (Pa.).
 
Slippery Rock overcame a 25-22 loss in the opening set by rattling off consecutive 25-16, 25-23, 27-25 wins to secure a key conference victory.
 
Friday's win improves The Rock's record to 11-7 on the season overall and 3-3 inside the PSAC West while the Vulcans fall to 6-6 overall and 1-4 in league competition.
 
SRU has now started the season with a .500 or better winning percentage over its first six league matches of the season for a second consecutive year. The last time Slippery Rock went at least 3-3 to start conference competition in consecutive seasons was 2013 (3-3) and 2014 (5-1).
 
Erica Selfridge extended her streak of double-double performances to six matches following an impressive 17-kill, 16-dig showing that included a .222 attack percentage. Selfridge's 17 kills matched SRU's single-match high for the 2023 season.
 
Callie Chevalier came away with her second straight double-digit kill match by way of a 16-kill effort against the Vulcans. Chevalier, who closed the contest with a team-best .286 attack percentage, also contributed nine digs.
 
Chelsie Wheeler and Alayna Chizmar added to The Rock's attack by tallying nine and eight kills, respectively, with Wheeler's final kill of the night being the match-winner. Chizmar also matched a career-high with five aces – half of SRU's total for the entire match.
 
The Rock's middle hitter duo of Lauren VonderHaar and Mary Berger combined for five total blocks in the win in addition to 11 kills.
 
Guiding the offense was Jaeden Yost, who secured the seventh 30-assist performance of her career Friday with 31 all the while serving two aces.
 
Defensively, Kate Lachendro made a match-high 29 digs and in the process moved into 10th place in Slippery Rock program history for digs in a career with 1,446.
 
Rounding out The Rock's top performers in the win was Paige Weeder (two aces / 12 digs) and Peytan Gullickson (14 assists).
 
Following its first-set loss, Slippery Rock rallied by posting a convincing 25-16 victory in the second set. SRU, which has now won the second set in 13 of its 18 matches on the year, took 10 of the final 13 points in the set.
 
The Rock and Vulcans played to a 14-14 tie in the third set before SRU pushed ahead courtesy of a 7-1 run that resulted in a 21-15 Slippery Rock advantage. SRU went on to fend off a late surge by California for an eventual 25-23 win.
 
The fourth set was another back-and-forth contest that saw the Vulcans narrowly edge their way out to a 25-24 lead to force a set-point scenario and a Slippery Rock timeout.
 
However, SRU was able to avoid a fifth set as it came out of the break by taking three consecutive points thanks to a pair of Wheeler kills sandwiched around a block assist from VonderHaar and Selfridge en route to the 27-25 match-deciding win.
 
Slippery Rock finished the match holding advantages over the Vulcans in kills (61-47), attack percentage (.185-.157), aces (10-7) and digs (95-83) while California held the edge in total blocks (8-5).
 
California was led by Elisa Rugiero who had 14 kills, six digs and two blocks.
 
Slippery Rock will close out the weekend with a non-conference road match 4 p.m. Saturday at Wheeling University.




To stay up to date with all that happens at The Rock, follow our official athletic communication accounts on 'X' (formerly Twitter, @Rock_Athletics), Facebook (RockAthletics) and Instagram (RockAthletics).