BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Slippery Rock University volleyball team finished off a perfect weekend with two more victories Saturday at the D'Youville Tournament.
SRU opened the day by besting Kutztown University in four sets (25-23, 25-14, 23-25, 27-25) followed by a sweep of Frostburg State University (25-14, 25-20, 26-24).
The wins push The Rock's winning streak to four matches while improving their overall record to 7-5. The losses move KU's record to 3-5 and Frostburg State's to 4-5.
Callie Chevalier and
Gwen McCarthy each had 22 kills over the two wins while
Lauren VonderHaar tallied 13 kills and a team-best seven blocks.
Kara Pasquale provided SRU with a pair of 20+ dig performances on the way to a 53-dig, two-ace total over the two matches.
SRU 3 – KU 2
Slippery Rock's victory over Kutztown saw The Rock serve a season-high 11 aces, spearheaded by setter combination of
Paityn Krause and
Jaeden Yost with three apiece. VonderHaar added two aces with Chevalier,
Marley Annis and
Arielle Walter at one each.
McCarthy (13) and Chevalier (10) combined for 23 of SRU's 54 kills. Behind the duo was a balanced attack in which six other athletes had between four and seven kills.
Pasquale recorded 28 digs, one shy of her career-high.
The first set between The Rock and Golden Bears was anyone's to win as the two evenly matched rosters played to a 23-23 stalemate before SRU used a
Victoria Nalbach kill and a KU attack error to claim a 25-23 win.
Slippery Rock capitalized on four Kutztown errors and back-to-back kills by McCarthy to grab an early 6-1 lead in the second set. SRU proceeded to build its lead out to 12-3 midway through the set on the way to a quality 25-14 win.
While the Golden Bears would take the third set to avoid the sweep Slippery Rock outlasted KU in the fourth with a 27-25 win to end any thoughts of a Kutztown comeback.
SRU 3 – FSU 0
The Rock limited the Bobcats to a .035 attack percentage en route to its third sweep of the season.
Chevalier tallied 12 kills on near automatic .265 attack percentage. McCarthey added nine kills as well with VonderHaar going for six kills and four blocks. Nalbach chipped in nine kills via a .556 attack percentage.
Yost and Krause assisted on 31 of 36 Rock kills
Pasquale had another quality match both defensively (25 digs) and offensively (two aces).
Following a quick 25-14 victory in the opening set, Slippery Rock and Frostburg State traded points to a 14-12 SRU advantage. From there, SRU doubled its lead to four points at 23-19 before taking two of the final three points courtesy of kills by Chevalier and Nalbach for a 25-20 win.
The final set of the weekend was close throughout as neither team led by more than three points, but with the score knotted at 24-24 Annis and VonderHaar combined on a block before VonderHaar threw down a final match-clinching kill.
Slippery Rock opens Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division competition 6 p.m. Sept. 24 at Clarion.
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