The Shippensburg University volleyball team earned its second straight Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division victory on Saturday afternoon by defeating East Stroudsburg in four sets at Koehler Fieldhouse. Set scores were 17-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-12.
Shippensburg (6-9, 2-1 PSAC East) ended the match hitting .176 from the floor with 51 kills. The Warriors collected 42 kills, hitting .165. From the service line, SU matched their season high with 14 aces. The Warriors delivered five aces and out-blocked SU 6-3.
The Raiders were paced by senior
Emily Gardner who slammed a career-high 19 kills – hitting .212 from the floor while only committing eight attack errors on 52 swings. Gardner collected her tenth double-double of the season, with 19 digs. She added an ace and a solo block for the Raiders.
Eleven of the 14 Raider aces came from junior
Berkley Simmons and senior
Kat Negron. Simmons posted a career-high of six while Negron delivered a season-high five.
Junior
Kearstin Davis handed out 40 assists, tallied six digs, six kills, and added a service ace. Sophomore libero Shay KolivoskI recorded 18 digs and a kill.
East Stroudsburg got an early lead in set one with a 7-1 scoring stretch, 10-4. The Raiders cut the deficit to three with a pair of Gardner kills and an ace from Negron, 10-7. The Warriors increased their lead with a 4-0 run, 18-10. Back-to-back Simmons' aces, two ESU attack errors and a kill from Gardner put the Raiders within four, 20-16. The Warriors closed set one with a 5-1 scoring stretch, 25-17.
The second set proved to be a back-and-forth battle as the teams tied 13 different times. Shippensburg took an early 3-0 run to lead the set, 7-5. The Warriors answered with a 3-0 run to lead by one, 8-7. The largest lead for the Raiders came at 23-19 after a 4-0 run that featured kills from sophomore
Natalya Montague, freshman
Clara Wildermuth, Gardner and Kolivoski. Kills from junior
Kayla Johnson and Wildermuth ended set two in favor of the Raiders, 25-21.
Set three started with a 3-0 run from both teams, 3-3. A 6-1 scoring run gave the Warriors the lead at 16-11. The Raiders started to build momentum with a 4-1 scoring stretch to put them within two, 17-15. A kill from Davis and three kills from Montague gave SU a 4-0 run to tie the set at 19-19. SU arrived at set point after a 3-0 run that featured a pair of Gardner kills and a Simmons ace. Davis finished set three for the Raiders with a kill, 25-22.
With the Warriors in the lead at 5-4, the Raiders recorded a 7-0 run that included three Simmons aces and three kills from Gardner, 12-5. After two ESU points, Negron unleashed a 10-point service run that included four service aces, 22-7. The Warriors tried to make a late comeback with a 4-1 scoring stretch, 24-12. Johnson slammed the final kill for the Raiders to end the match, 25-12.
Shippensburg returns back home on Friday to take on Millersville at 7 p.m.
