ST. DAVID'S, Pa. –The Stevenson women's volleyball team (23-4, 6-1 MACC) battled through five sets with Eastern (18-5, 7-0 MACC) Tuesday night for the top spot in the MAC Commonwealth standings with both teams entering the matchup undefeated in conference play. Eastern ultimately came away with the 2-3 victory to clinch the first seed in the upcoming MAC Commonwealth Championship. The Set scores were 16-25, 25-22, 25-23, 20-25, 9-15.
In the opening set, the teams traded runs to a 7-7 tie before Eastern embarked on a 6-1 run to take a 14-8 lead. The separation would prove to be all the Eagles needed. Stevenson chipped away but were unable to pair more than two points together the rest of the way.
Three kills in a row from Logan Martin moved the Eagles advantage to 13-20.
Sarah Straub and
Kylie DesLauriers paired up to block the Eastern attack at the 16-23 mark but Eastern took the final two points to win the frame 16-25.
The Mustangs returned to form in the second set, hitting .316 in the frame and opening a 10-6 lead with a three-point run sparked by a
Rileigh Kimball kill. Stevenson leveraged a 15-8 lead on another three point run which saw kills from
Sarah Straub,
Giulia Viglietta and an ace from
Makala Thompson.
Fending-off a run from the Eagles, Stevenson forced a side out before the teams traded the next five points to a 19-14 mark. Eastern gave one final push with a 7-1 run to close the gap to 22-21 but back-to-back kills from
Shannon Baily stalled the momentum. The Mustangs finished the frame on a kill from
Sarah Straub to take the set 25-22 and even the match at one set a-piece.
The match continued to be tightly contested in the third set with sides enduring 11 tie scores and two lead changes. Stevenson used a three-point run to take a 10-8 lead, the largest run of the frame by either team to that point. The run included two kills from
Sarah Straub plus a block from the duo of Straub and Viglietta Eastern tallied four points to take its first advantage of the frame at 16-19.
The sides traded points with Stevenson never able to tie the set over the course of the next nine points. However,
Kylie DesLauriers sent home a kill followed by an ace from
Rileigh Kimball to knot the set at 23-23. A timeout from Eastern attempted to stall the Mustang momentum but an Eagle error followed by a kill from
Shannon Baily gave Stevenson a 25-23 victory.
Stevenson carried its momentum into the fourth set, opening an 8-4 lead using a 5-1 run to get there which included another block from Straub and Viglietta, a kill from Kimball, and an ace from
Samantha Simmers. The sides traded runs before Eastern overtook the lead with a seven-point run for a 12-17 advantage. Stevenson narrowed the lead to 18-20 on a 5-2 run with kills from Viglietta, Kimball and Hoover. The Mustangs made one last push to narrow the lead to 20-22 but the Eagles took the final three points to win the fourth set 20-25.
The fifth set saw six tie scores and one lead change as the teams were never separated by more than two points until Eastern leveraged an 8-13 margin on a four-point stretch.
Sarah Straub added another kill to move the set to 9-13 before the Eagles added the final two tallies to take the final frame at 9-15.
Numbers and Notes
What's Next
Stevenson will host Messiah on Thursday, October 27 to complete the 2022 regular season. The winner will clinch the second seed in the MAC Commonwealth tournament.
