The Shippensburg University volleyball team capped off its opening weekend of the season with a split on Saturday at the Tony Banner Memorial Volleyball Tournament hosted by Clarion University. The Raiders defeated New Haven in five sets before dropping a straight-set match to Ursuline to conclude a long day inside Waldo Tippin Gymnasium.
 
Shippensburg (1-3) defeated New Haven in a five-setter in which each of the first three frames came down to the wire. Set scores were 25-23, 23-25, 28-26, 13-25 and 15-9. In the nightcap that took place at 7:30 p.m., Ursuline defeated the Raiders by scores of 25-20, 25-22 and 25-12.
 
In the riveting five-set win over New Haven, freshman setter Lily Letchworth was all over the stat column with career highs of 50 assists and 10 kills to complement a team-high three aces. Junior Rachel Verhoef had her second straight efficient hitting performance with a career-high 19 kills and a .300 attack efficiency.
 
Junior middle Oyinda Agbale was excellent as she slammed a career-high 15 kills, swung an impressive .440 from the floor, and led the team with four block assists. Defensively, sophomore libero Alex Leitner paced the team with 26 digs.
 
In the nightcap, Agbale led the Raiders with six kills and hit .150. Letchworth had 18 assists, nine digs and five kills. Leitner had a team-high 18 digs, and freshman Kat Negron recorded five kills and 14 digs.

Verhoef (48 kills, .250, 8 blocks) and Agbale (31 kills, .313, 16 blocks) were named Saturday night to the All-Tournament Team for the Tony Banner Memorial Volleyball Tournament.
 
Shippensburg returns to action next week at Cal U. for the Vulcan Invitational. The Raiders play the host Vulcans on Thursday night.