Slippery Rock University Athletics

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University volleyball team nearly pulled off the reverse sweep, but had its comeback bid thwarted by California (Pa.) in a tight 25-19, 25-21, 23-25, 25-27, 15-13 loss Friday at Morrow Field House.
 
The close Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division setback moves The Rock's record to 7-18 overall and 1-12 in league matches. The visiting Vulcans improve to 10-18 overall and 4-9 inside the PSAC West.
 
Marley Annis led The Rock attack by producing an 11-kill, 16-dig, two-ace night in the double-double performance.
 
Ava Haynes (9), Emry Rumbaugh (9), Victoria Nalbach (8) and Hayden Deming (8) all approached the 10-kill threshold as well, with Nalbach also tallying a team-high six blocks (5 solo / 1 assisted).
 
Adding to SRU's offensive exploits was Leah Schreckengost with three aces and Paityn Krause with an ace of her own.
 
Krause also distributed 22 assists, pushing her career total to 1,182 to pass Stephanie Kluge (1999-02) for 13th on the program's all-time assists leaderboard, while making 12 digs in a double-double showing.
 
Fellow setter Emily Loeffler grabbed her first career double-double with 24 assists and a personal-best 14 digs.
 
Kara Pasquale (18) and Ellie Friedrichs (10) also registered double-digit dig matches in addition to Friedrichs chipping in six kills as well. Rounding out The Rock's top performers were Ali Haynes (5 kills) and Ryan Cameron (2 blocks).
 
Collectively, Slippery Rock bettered the Vulcans in kills (57-55), aces (6-4) and digs (91-90). California had advantages over SRU in attack percentage (.151 / .059) and total blocks (14-8). In what was their first five-set match of the year, The Rock set team season-highs in kills and digs.
 
After dropping the opening two sets, Slippery Rock began its comeback bid in the third. In a set that featured dueling runs, SRU found itself trailing 22-20 and a Vulcan sweep a high probability.
 
Undeterred, The Rock promptly rattled off three consecutive points – two of which came on Annis kills – before Cal ended the run via an Alayna Jones kill only for Deming and Annis to respond with back-to-back set-deciding kills in a 25-23 win. Annis provided SRU with five kills in the third set.
 
As was the case all match, the fourth set was another back-and-forth encounter in which The Rock and Vulcans fought to a 23-23 tie before each team played out of set-point situations – Cal evening a 24-23 deficit and SRU doing the same down 25-24 with three consecutive points by way two kills from Rumbaugh sandwiched around a Vulcan attack error in a 27-25 Rock triumph.
 
SRU and California traded three-point spurts to open the fifth set, The Vulcans eventually settled into an 8-6 edge only for Slippery Rock to fire off six straight points with the highlights of the run being two aces from Schreckengost and a pair of blocks by Nalbach.
 
However, on a night when no lead was safe, California mounted a final rally to fend off the comeback-minded Rock team as the Vulcans erased a 12-8 SRU advantage by accounting for seven of the night's final eight points en route to a 15-13 victory.
 
Olivia Weiseman (17) and Madelyn Salisbury (16) combined for 33 kills for California. Lindsey Scammell added seven blocks (5 solo / 2 assisted).
 
Slippery Rock ends its 2026 season 2 p.m. Saturday against Seton Hill University at Morrow Field House.
 
 
 
 


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