The Shippensburg University volleyball team dropped its 2026 season opener Thursday night at Clarion, falling 3-1 to the Golden Eagles to kick off the Tony Banner Memorial Classic held annually at Waldo Tippin Gymnasium.
Set scores were 19-25, 19-25, 27-25 and 19-25.
It is the sixth consecutive year that Shippensburg (0-1) and Clarion (1-0) have faced off to begin the season, with the Golden Eagles now having claimed five of those meetings. SU has taken at least one set in four of those six meetings and won last year's season opener in five sets (the two teams met again later in the season; Clarion won that at home in four sets).
The difference in Thursday's opener was attack efficiency, as the two teams finished fairly even in aces (Clarion 8-5) and digs (Clarion 97-87). The Golden Eagles had 54 kills and hit .139 as a team, while the Raiders managed just 41 kills and hit .054 as a team. The two squads combined for 60 attack errors (31 by SU, 29 by Clarion).
Senior
Kylie Snyder hit .250 from the floor, ripping seven kills with just one error. Junior
Clara Wildermuth added seven kills.
Six Raiders produced five or more kills and two others added four kills. Senior
Hailey Cappleman tallied six kills while adding a team-high three block assists and two aces. Fellow senior
Natalya Montague had five kills and two blocks.
Redshirt-sophomore
Riley Blank entered the night with only five career kills but equaled that total Thursday night. Sophomore
Mya Davis, who had just one kill in her debut season a year ago, also finished with five kills. Sophomore
Elise Bragg had four kills and five digs.
Five Raiders finished the night with double-digit digs. Junior
Shea Stevens led SU with a career-high 19 digs – six more than her previous single-match best. All-American senior libero
Shay Kolivoski had 16 digs, three assists and two aces.
Junior
Sophia Barrera also had a huge career high in digs – totaling 11 to go along with an ace a kill. Barrera's previous single-match best for digs was four – achieved twice.
Both squads entered the 2026 season needing to replace an All-American who held a major role in their respective team's lineup. For the Raiders – it was
Kearstin Davis at setter: the San Antonio, Texas native is one of only five players in school history to be a four-time All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) performer. Davis graduated with 4,256 career assists, a total that ranks her fourth in school history.
On Thursday night, both teams ended up rotating two setters. For SU, freshman
Molly Seifert contributed 18 assists and 15 digs in her collegiate debut, while junior
Jaiden Anderson tallied 16 assists, 12 digs and one kill. It is the fifth time in Anderson's career that she has recorded a "double-double" with at least 10 assists and 10 digs in the same match. Clarion's Natalie Karrick and Kylie Barto combined for 41 assists and 26 digs.
The Golden Eagles entered 2026 with an opening at libero following the graduation of All-American Haley Fledderjohann. The 2025 PSAC Western Division Athlete of the Year averaged 5.13 digs per set last season and completed her career with 1,363 digs and 100 aces.
Redshirt-freshman Kalina Powell more than adequately filled that role Thursday night, leading all players with 26 digs while adding five assists.
The hosts were powered offensively by Cara Vandeborne and Emily Klopp, who combined for 25 kills, while Taylor Haupt had a double-double of 10 kills and 19 digs.
Despite the six-point deficit in each of the sets it lost, the Raiders were in contention in each frame and delivered multiple rallies to make things close. In the second set, SU fell behind 6-0 out of the gate but clawed its way back to get as close as two points (18-20) late in the frame.
In the third set, Shippensburg trailed 18-13 and was down 23-21 late. After staving off a match point at 24-23, the Golden Eagles defended a set point at 25-24 before the Raiders closed the frame with
Mya Davis kill and a Clarion attack error.
Shippensburg will remain in Clarion the next two days for a total of three matches. On Friday, SU will face Daemen (N.Y.) at 11:30 a.m. and West Virginia Wesleyan at 4:30 p.m.
