New Kensington Volleyball Takes Set, but Ultimately Falls to PSU Greater Allegheny

NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. - 

After dropping its last five matches all in straight sets, the Penn State New Kensington women's volleyball team played much more competitively at home on Tuesday night against Penn State Greater Allegheny. New Ken captured a set, but ultimately came up short, dropping a 3-1 decision to the visitors. Greater Allegheny prevailed by scores of 25-18, 25-19, 26-28, and 25-19.

With the setback, New Ken falls to 0-5 in Penn State University Athletic Conference play, and 1-7 overall. Greater Allegheny, conversely, improves to 2-3 in PSUAC action, and 3-8 overall.

In the opening set, Greater Allegheny jumped out to a 5-1 advantage, and never relinquished that lead. Penn State New Ken coach Frank Stackiewicz called a timeout with his team trailing 19-13, but the move did little to slow Greater Allegheny's momentum, as the visiting Lions cruised to the set victory.

New Kensington scored first in the second set, but Greater Allegheny broke serve to pull even, and then notched four straight points on the service, with Juliana Brill leading the way on the line. New Ken battled back, however, and pulled within a point, at 9-8. Greater Allegheny regained the advantage, though, and captured the set to take a commanding 2-0 edge.

In the third set, New Kensington played with more consistency, as the homestanding Lions held the lead on several occasions. New Ken held set point in its favor at 24-20, but Greater Allegheny caught fire at the service line, and courtesy of several aces, pulled even at 24-24 to extend the set. After more back-and-forth action, PSU New Ken prevailed 28-26 to make the match 2-1.

The fourth and final set played out similarly to the first two, as Greater Allegheny held the lead for the majority of play. The visitors gained an early 7-1 edge, but New Kensington responded with four straight points, guided by Lindsey Hessom's (Leechburg, Pa/Kiski Area) work on the service line. New Ken was unable to pull even, though, and Greater Allegheny closed out the set to claim the victory.

PSU Greater Allegheny had a decided advantage in depth, as the visitors utilized 11 players, while New Kensington was limited to just six players, with sophomore Janet Surma (Lower Burrell, Pa/Burrell) still unable to play while recovering from injury.

Greater Allegheny also proved superior both on the attack and at the line, as it compiled a hitting percentage .100 better than New Ken, and also edged the home squad 15-7 in service aces.

For New Kensington, Kaylea Flick (Murrysville, Pa/Franklin Regional) led the attack, as she compiled a game-high 15 kills, while Cora Rajniak (Gibsonia, Pa/Deer Lakes) contributed 10 kills and seven digs. Hessom paced the Lions with 28 assists, which tied for the game-high, Brittany Kotvas (Pittsburgh, Pa/Plum) led the match with nine digs, and Erin Tumas (Vandergrift, Pa/Kiski Area) had eight digs. Bethany Baney (Apollo, Pa/Kiski Area) produced a team-best three aces.

In the triumph, Alix Ellis and Kaylee Holtzman tied for the Greater Allegheny team-lead with 13 kills. Additionally, Seiblesierra Ili orchestrated the offense, with 28 assists, and she added six digs and five aces. Ellis also had a game-high seven aces, and tied for the team-best with six digs.

Penn State New Kensington next plays on Saturday at 5:30 p.m., as the Lions face PSU York as part of Penn State crossover weekend, which is held at Penn State Fayette.

Written by: Sean Meyers