WHEELING, W. Va. – The Slippery Rock University volleyball team closed out the Atlantic Region Crossover by splitting a pair of matches Friday on the campus of Wheeling University.
 
SRU opened the day with a three-set (25-20, 25-15, 25-17) loss to host Wheeling, but rebounded to finish the crossover on a high note courtesy of a three-set (26-24, 25-21, 25-18) win of its own over Fairmont State University.
 
With the opening three weeks of the regular season now completed, Slippery Rock will take an 8-4 record into its Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division opener Tuesday against Gannon University. Wheeling improved to 5-4 with its win over The Rock while Fairmont State dropped to 6-7.
 
Following its three-set loss to Wheeling, Slippery Rock regrouped to register its fifth sweep of the year.
 
Alayna Chizmar served five aces to go along with 10 kills on a .333 attack percentage and three blocks to pace The Rock in their victory against the Falcons. Callie Chevalier tallied a team-high 14 kills for her fifth double-digit kill of the year as well.
 
Erica Selfridge and Chelsie Wheeler rounded out SRU's attack leaders with seven kills apiece. Peytan Gullickson guided the offense with 18 assists while Jaeden Yost chipped in 14.
 
Lauren VonderHaar continued her breakout sophomore season with six more blocks, pushing her season total to a team-high 53. Libero Kate Lachendro made 25 digs. Lachendro exited the weekend with 34 total digs, moving her to 14th in program history for digs in a career with 1.325.
 
Slippery Rock held advantages over Fairmont State in attack percentage (.187), kills (43-33) and aces (10-6). Both teams registered eight total blocks.
 
It appeared as if FSU was poised to take the first set after jumping out to a 24-20 lead. However, Slippery Rock persevered and slowly chipped away at the deficit starting with a Chevalier kill with a bad set, a Chizmar ace and finally a block assist by Mary Berger and Jalynn West pulling The Rock even with the Falcons at 24-24.
 
SRU completed its comeback courtesy of a pair of attack errors for the 26-24 win.
 
The end of the second set was also dominated by The Rock. Tied at 21-21, Slippery Rock posted four straight points by way of Wheeler and Selfridge kills and capped with back-to-back aces from Yost to claim a 25-21 win.
 
While the opening two sets were both close throughout, Slippery Rock dominated the third set. FSU led 4-1 early, but SRU countered with a 9-0 run to take a lead it would never relinquish on the way to a 25-18 match-deciding win.
 
Following 12 consecutive matches away from The Rock, SRU hosts Gannon 7 p.m. Sept. 19 at Morrow Field House to open PSAC West competition as part of Slippery Rock's annual "Green Out" match.
 
 
 
 
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