The Shippensburg University volleyball team came from behind Saturday to achieve a reverse sweep at Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division opponent Bloomsburg, defeating the Huskies by set scores of 23-25, 19-25, 25-21, 25-19 and 15-13 in action at Nelson Field House.
Shippensburg (13-7, 4-3) came away with the narrow victory despite committing 43 errors on the day – 32 on attack and 11 at the service line. The Raiders totaled 61 kills and hit .148 from the floor while recording a season-high 13 blocks. SU ended up with two more blocks and two more aces (7-to-5) than the hosts.
It was Shippensburg's first reverse sweep since Sept. 3, 2022, when it outlasted Elizabeth City State in five sets in a neutral-site tournament match at Virginia State. SU is now 2-0 this season in five-set matches and has now won nine of its last 11 five-set matches overall through the start of last season.
It is also the second straight year that the Raiders overcame a deficit to win in five sets at Bloomsburg (SU won the first set last season before winning in five).
Bloomsburg (8-10, 1-7) hit .163 from the floor but had 38 errors of its own – including 14 at the service line. The final two points of the match in the 15-13 fifth set were service errors – one by the Raiders that was followed by the Huskies.
For the second straight match, junior
Clara Wildermuth finished with a career high in kills. Wildermuth slammed a match-high 17 kills on Saturday, hitting .192 from the floor, to go along with three blocks (one solo) and four digs. She was especially strong in the first half of the match, totaling nine kills on 18 swings (.389 attack percentage) through the first two sets.
Defensively, senior libero
Shay Kolivoski, playing in her 100th career match on Saturday, produced an incredible single-match best of 37 digs to go along with six assists and a service ace. It is the first 30-dig match of her career and eight more than she had ever achieved in a contest. She delivered 10 digs in the first set and eight digs in each of the next three sets.
Now at exactly 1,660 digs in her career, Kolivoski needs nine digs to tie Laura Plank for fifth all-time in Raider history for the category.
Senior
Natalya Montague delivered 13 kills, just one short of her career high, and hit .162 from the floor. Montague had a hand in eight blocks (one solo); her seven block assists are a new career high. She clinched both the third set and the fourth set with a kill.
Senior
Kylie Snyder came off the bench to start each of the final three sets and equaled Montague with a match-high seven block assists. Snyder tied her career high for block assists – making it the third time in her she finished a match with seven. She also had four kills and hit .231 on 13 swings.
Senior
Hailey Cappleman hit .267 from the floor on 30 swings, ripping 12 kills and totaling five blocks (one solo). Junior
Shea Stevens served a team-high three aces and had eight digs.
Junior
Jaiden Anderson produced single-match bests of 45 assists, four kills and two block assists; she also recorded 18 digs to finish one off her career high. Thirty-one of Anderson's assists came in the final three sets as SU completed its comeback.
Katie Kuehl and Sasha Moody had virtually the same stat line for the Huskies – each player had 15 kills on 51 swings and also two block assists. Moody had one less attack error than Kuehl. Sara Kokolus had 45 assists and Emily Gustie had 22 digs.
After dropping the first two sets, Shippensburg did not trail at all in the third and fourth set. The Raiders staked out a 17-9 lead in the third set and an 11-6 lead in the fourth set. A four-point service run by freshman
Alycia Miller keyed the fourth-set advantage.
SU trailed by as many as three points in the fifth set, calling timeout at 10-7 to regroup. Down two, at 11-9, a four-point service run by Kolivoski led to Bloomsburg using both of its timeouts in an effort to slow the momentum. A Cappleman kill made it 14-12 in favor of the Raiders before the back-to-back service errors ended the match.
Shippensburg returns home at 7 p.m. Tuesday when it hosts Kutztown at Heiges Field House.
