KUTZTOWN, Pa. – After falling to the Shepherd Rams last week, Millersville is back on top with a road sweep against the Kutztown Golden Bears on Friday night.

Kutztown (9-8, 3-3) entered the night coming off two back-to-back wins over PSAC East opponents. With the sweep over the Golden Bears, Millersville (12-8, 3-3) is now tied for third place in the PSAC East standings with three other teams. 

HOW IT HAPPENED 
(30-28, 25-16, 26-24) 

• Millersville made a comeback in set one and forced the score to 30-28. There was early back-and-forth action and Kutztown created momentum from a four-point rally, leading the Marauders 14-10. Pushing the score to 20-13, Kutztown was within five points of closing with Millersville trailing by seven, but the Marauders rallied for four-points which cut their deficit to three. The teams continued the back-and-forth battle until a Kutztown attack error and a service ace from Emma Ludwig secured set one for Millersville.
• The second set contained an even beginning from both teams. With a Millersville lead of 12-10, Kutztown attempted to close the small gap, but a seven-point rally from the Marauders put them ahead by nine points. The seven-point rally consisted of five kills, four of which were produced by Rose Vail. The Golden Bears were able to put six more on the board, but the Marauders offensively dominated and closed set two with four kills and two service aces.  
• The Golden Bears totaled 21 kills compared to Millersville's 18 and looked to win their first set of the night, but a Millersville second effort pushed the final set to extra points.  Neither team could get further than three-points throughout set three and the back-and-forth battle continued. With the score tied 21-21, Vail tallied two kills and put the Marauders just two-points away, but an aggressive Kutztown answered back with two kills of their own. The game was tied up 24-24 and Millersville was able to secure the sweep with a kill from Emily Hoffman and Kylie Airesman.  

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE 

• Vail (18) and Airesman (15) reached a new season-high and led the Marauders in kills.
• Ludwig recorded a season-high of 40 assists while also totaling 16 digs.
• Rylee Thomas led the team with six blocks and Vail followed with four.
• Rebecca Dalstad led 'Ville with 21 digs. 

REACTION FROM HEAD COACH BRIAN SMITH 

On the overall match: " Tonight was a great team win. We discussed our game plan this week and we did a really good job staying with it. We knew we wanted to win the serve/ serve receive part of the match and clearly did that. We didn't give Kutztown a free ball opportunity until 27-27 in set one. We had 11 aces to their one and that one was a miscommunication error." 

On Vail, Airesman, and Ludwig's performance: "Kylie and Rose had good numbers but so did the other hitters. Everyone looks at the kills and hitting percentages, Kylie's were excellent tonight. But she was a primary passer all match and did an excellent job on the serve line. Her contribution was very balanced as well as outstanding. We moved the ball around a little more than Kutztown and everyone played a part in our success. It was a great game for our net and back row defense. Emma was excellent all match and our composure was present the whole match. We never doubted ourselves. It's impressive that Emma had her season-high assists in a match that only had three sets. That's a testament to her match and the success of the hitters and defenders that covered them.  

Tomorrow's battle against East Stroudsburg: "This year every match in the East is important. We have a team that doesn't spend much time looking ahead. We are focused on the next match and know for us it's going to be more about our execution. We found out 30 minutes before departing the 'Ville our starting outside Laurel Samko would not be able to play. We made the adjustment and everyone else showed up to complete. We will enjoy this tonight and go for another one tomorrow. We are having fun as a team." 
  
UP NEXT 

• The Marauders are back on the road tomorrow, Oct 8, for another PSAC East match-up against the East Stroudsburg Warriors. The first serve is scheduled for 4 p.m.