MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - Millersville trailed visiting Pitt-Johnstown by seven points early in the first set, but the Marauder stormed back, and using a season-high 17 services aces, they scored a convincing 3-0 (25-20, 25-11, 25-19) PSAC win Friday night in Pucillo Gymnasium.
Millersville (12-4, 2-1 PSAC) rolled to its 16th consecutive home win, totaling its most services aces since Oct. 14, 2017. The last time Millersville had 12 wins through its first 16 matches was in 1998--a team that won the PSAC East with a 10-0 record.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
• A slow start that included six attack errors in the first 18 rallies had Millersville down 12-7 the first set. But
Lindsey Blevins delivered back-to-back aces, starting the Marauders' comeback. Millersville slowly closed the gap, and a Blevins kill made it 17-14 and set off a 6-0 Millersville run that put the home team up 19-17. Millersville scored on 12 of the final 15 rallies of the set. Seven of the points came on aces with
Emily Hoffman tallying three and Blevins adding two.
• Millersville did not trail over the final two sets. With
Katie Laughman serving, the Marauders opened the second with five-straight points. Millersville totaled 14 kills to two errors in the second.
Jayci Suseland and
Haley Butler both recorded four kills without an error.
• The Marauders started the third set on a 6-1 run and recorded five more aces to go with 13 kills and a .242 hitting percentage in the set. Blevins and Suseland combined for 10 of those kills.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
• Millersville out-hit Pitt-Johnstown .293 to .174. Suseland finished with 13 kills and a .293 hitting percentage.
• Laughman recorded a double-double with 28 assists and 10 digs. She also added three kills and three aces without an error.
• Hoffman posted a career-high five aces, and
Chyna Gubbings posted a career-high with four. Neither player committed a service error.
• Millersville finished with eight total team blocks.
Carley Baughman led the team with six block assists.
THOUGHTS FROM COACH BRIAN SMITH
• On overcoming the slow start: "We have unfortunately been starting slowly. It wasn't as bad tonight. What we were struggling with wasn't our ball control. It was more our hitting. I'm more concerned when it's our ball control. We let them weather the storm, called a timeout and said 'hey, we are fine.' Collectively, they know it is about focusing on executing."
• On success with the serve: "We did see some things on the film. I think it was more on them than it was on us. Seventeen aces is enormously high. We do serve deep as a team and some teams struggle with that. We did serve well but I also think they had an off night."
• On the team's trajectory: "We are coming off a win over a quality team, and tonight, we beat a team that is traditionally very strong and a couple of years ago, they won a PSAC Championship. It was a good win. We love playing at home. We had a good crowd, and we appreciate that support. We have to continue to focus one day at a time."
NOTES
• It was just the second time since 2013--a span of eight matches--that Millersville has defeated Pitt-Johnstown.
• Laughman's double-double was her team-leading 13th of the season.
• Millersville has totaled 27 service aces in the last two matches.
UP NEXT
• Millersville is back in action at Pucillo Gymnasium on Saturday, Oct. 5 against Indiana (Pa.). The match starts at 1 p.m.
