The Shippensburg University volleyball team dropped a five-set marathon at rival Millersville on Friday night in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division play at Pucillo Gymnasium. Set scores were 22-25, 26-24, 25-16, 23-25 and 12-15.
 
Shippensburg (16-12, 10-3 PSAC East) could not overcome 35 attack errors – its second highest total of the season – despite matching its kills total of 65 from the previous meeting with Millersville (15-13, 7-6). In that match on Oct. 11 at Heiges Field House, the Raiders had just 17 errors and hit .261 from the floor; on Friday night the Raiders swung just .144.
 
Senior Emily Gardner became the 20th player in school history to reach 1,000 career digs on Friday night. Gardner finished with 21 digs – equaling her total from the first meeting against Millersville. Gardner also had a team-high 55 attacks, finishing the night hitting .055 from the floor with 17 kills.
 
Junior Kayla Johnson had a career-high 50 attacks, finishing with 12 kills and hitting .120. Senior Maddie Clabaugh had 10 kills and nine digs and hit .121 on 33 swings.
 
Sophomores Natalya Montague and Hailey Cappleman were the most efficient of the Raider hitters Friday night; Montague had 14 kills and hit .273 while Cappleman came off the bench midway through the match and produced eight kills and three blocks and hit .250.
 
SU served nine aces, with junior Berkley Simmons providing a team-high four. Simmons added 10 digs. Sophomore libero Shay Kolivoski added 14 digs and two aces. Senior Erica Lampus also delivered 10 digs.
 
Junior setter Kearstin Davis contributed 58 assists and 11 digs.
 
Millersville had big nights from Taylor Welter (18 kills, two errors, .308) and Sam White (10 kills, no errors, .625). Emma Kerwin had 18 kills and two aces but had 13 of the 22 Marauder errors. Madison Von Neida led all players with 27 digs.
 
The first set was mostly Millersville's but the score was 22-21 when the hosts called a timeout. The Marauders scored three of the final four points to take the first set. MU staved off a pair of set points in the second to make the score 24-24 before SU scored back-to-back points to even the match at 1-1.
 
The third set was all Shippensburg, as the Raiders raced out to an 8-3 start and led by as many as 11 points in the frame. Millersville led 6-2 to start the fourth but SU tied it at 8-8. The frame proved to be close throughout; Shippensburg trailed 21-18 but rallied to lead 22-21 and 23-22. The Marauders scored the final three points to force the fifth set.
 
The score was tied 10-10 in the fifth set but SU only managed two more kills the rest of the way. At 13-12, Millersville got kills from Emma Halsey and Kerwin to win the match.
 
The two teams have now split the season series in three of the last four years.
 
Shippensburg, already locked into the Eastern Division's No. 2 seed, wraps its regular season at 1 p.m. tomorrow at West Chester.