West Chester, Pa. - The Millersville volleyball team defeated West Chester in straight sets on Friday night for the first time since 2005 to earn its first PSAC win of the season and took a 27-26 lead in the all-time series.
The Marauders (7-6, 1-4 PSAC) sailed past the Golden Rams (8-6, 0-5) with set scores of 27-25, 25-21 and 25-16. Millersville used a .222 hitting percentage to dispatch West Chester and that included at least a .200 clip from three different Marauders including
Kayla Wallace (.400),
Katie Lesinski (.259) and
Mary Paul (.238).
The first set was a heated one that saw 11 ties and seven lead changes. Seven of those 11 ties came in the first 20 points and the score was tied 10-10 before the home team used a 5-0 run to take a 15-10 advantage. The Golden Rams were able to hold the lead until the score was knotted up again, this time at 22-22. After three more ties, the score was tied 25-25 and the visitors scored the final two points to take the set.
West Chester began the second set on a 10-4 run but Millersville used a 10-3 run of its own to take back the lead, 14-13. The fury was fueled by seven errors on behalf of the Golden Rams. The set included two more ties before the Marauders scored 10 of the final 16 points to take the set and a two sets to none lead.
Millersville started the third set up 8-3 and received two kills from both Lesinski and Paul during that span. The Marauders held the lead throughout and went up by as many nine on two separate occasions including the final score of 25-16. The closest West Chester could get was two points, 13-11, before Millersville sealed the set and the match with a 12-5 run. During that set, the Marauders hit a blistering .344 with 14 kills to only three errors on 32 total attacks.
Lesinski was the leader on offense with nine kills and also tallied seven digs while
Victoria Biggins aided the attack with 30 assists.
Brooklyn Smith led the Black and Gold in digs with 14 and Paul registered one solo block and assisted in two more.
Stephanie Kovacs' sister Amy didn't play for West Chester but it sure seemed like it as Kovacs was out to prove she was the better sister and sent home eight kills to go with two digs.
Millersville remains on the road Saturday against Cheyney with the match set to begin at 1 p.m.
