Volleyball Victorious In 3-2 Match Over Lycoming

(boxscore)

Widener battled through five sets against Lycoming and came out on top with a 3-2 victory (25-18, 23-25, 25-20, 20-25, 16-14) in tonight's Commonwealth Conference face-off at Schwartz Center.

Widener got the match started on a positive note by coming out and winning the first set 25-18. Lycoming was forced into a timeout early on in the game in the middle of a long service run by Jessica Dembeck (Philadelphia, PA). The Pride (13-12, 4-2 CC) held the lead for the majority of the set and it ended with a kill from Maggie Greenberg (Meadowbrook, PA).

The Warriors came into the second set looking for revenge as they won the first two points and held the lead until Widener tied it at 21 after Kaitlin Schnalzer (Bethlehem, PA) slammed a kill. Although Widener did not succeed in gaining the lead, it was a fight to the very last point, as the Pride forced the Lycoming head coach, Tom McMahon, to call a time out just one point away from winning the set after the Pride started to creep up the scoreboard. Amber Seibel had a kill on an overpass to end the second set 25-23 and tie the match 1-1.

The third set was neck-and-neck throughout the entire set, but Widener came out on top 25-20. Lycoming won the first point, but Veronica Vizzard (Havertown, PA) blocked an attack from Bethany Richardson straight down for the first tie score, 6-6. The rest of the set went back and forth, but Widener eventually won after Angela DiMaria (Warrington, PA) rolled the ball off of the Lycoming blockers' fingertips and it landed in the center of the Warrior's court.

The Pride could have taken the match in the fourth set, but Lycoming (16-5, 2-3) held strong and won the set 25-20, sending the match into a fifth set to 15 points—winner take all.

The fifth set was a nail-biter and could have gone in either team's direction as the score never reached more than a one point margin until the end.

Schnalzer had a day with 18 kills and just three hitting errors for a .294 hitting percentage. DiMaria had 13 kills to go with 17 digs and Victoria Miller (West Chester, PA) had 16 digs of her own. Greenberg notched 40 assists, 10 digs and two kills with libero Meghan Spence (Havertown, PA) picking up 28 digs and two service aces. Brittney Johnsen (Happy Valley, OR) came into the match and had two kills, two aces and two block assists.

For the Warriors, Richardson amassed 20 kills and just two errors over 37 attempts for a hitting percentage of .486 and also had two aces and 11 digs. Setter Katelyn McKillop totaled 43 assists and also picked up 17 digs and four service aces. Libero Kristin Whitehead had 32 digs.

Widener will travel to take on Swarthmore on Thursday as part of the annual “320 Challenge”, beginning at 7:00 pm.

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