Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - Coach Brian Smith said after day one of the Marauder Clash that he was expecting his team to have a better day on day two. He was certainly correct, as the Marauders claimed their first two wins of the season against Mercyhurst and Roberts Wesleyan. Match one was a nailbiter, needing all five sets to be decided. The second was much the opposite, as 'Ville cruised to a 3-1 victory.

RECAP MATCH ONE:  Every set except for the second was a battle, with the other four finishing within three points of each other and two needing overtime. The first of the day for the Marauders was their longest game of the season, finishing at 32-30. It was back and forth all the way, but back to back kills from Emma Kerwin and Emma Ludwig sealed the deal. In contrast, Millersville controlled set two all the way on the strength of five service aces. 
 
Mercyhurst, needing a spark, made a change at libero before the third game. They then took their biggest lead of the match to that point at 9-4. 'Ville would battle back, taking the lead at 22-19, but the effort was for naught as the visitors captured six of the next seven points en route to the victory.
 
The fourth set ended in favor of the Lakers as well. They threatened to run away with it, going up 20-11 before the Marauders stormed back with an 8-0 run punctuated by a Kerwin kill. In the deciding set, the Lakers again raced out to an early lead before Smith called timeout down 6-0. His young team responded, going on a 9-3 run of their own to tie it at nine apiece. Two late errors put Millersville on the cusp of victory before an Elizabeth Villegas ace put the Lakers away for good. 

RECAP MATCH TWO: Neither team had a lead of more than three points throughout the entire first set because the two teams canceled each other's strengths out.  Millersville's lightning-quick defense headed by Villegas, Paige Horst and Mya Cascario negated the powerful Redhawk hitters. Even so, Roberts Wesleyan was able to eventually take the set at 26-24 on a Marauder reception error. 
 
The Marauders responded in the second set and took a 7-4 lead before Roberts was able to battle back and lead at 14-12. The home team went on a 7-1 run to take the lead before a Becca Hartranft kill ended it. 
 
Set three was much of the same, even though the Redhawks made a change at libero. 'Ville was up 7-2 before Roberts Wesleyan called their first timeout. Even so, the die was cast, and they finished the set at 25-11. Millersville kept the visitors at arms length throughout the fourth set and capped off their victory with a final Hartranft kill. 

COACH BRIAN SMITH'S THOUGHTS

• On what he said to his team down 6-0: "The first thing I said was hey, it's not over obviously. They hadn't scored anything. I think of those six points that they had, we'd given them four of those. So really it wasn't about them, it was about us kind of just settling down, where it's our first time, it's all these young players, it's set five, and just taking care of better control of the ball and then working our way back into it. So my message was "Calm down. It's not over. We need two little runs but we need one right now." And so we did we got our run right away and it worked out."
• On his takeaways from the weekend: "We got a lot out of this this weekend. We had a tough four set game, we played a really tough opponent yesterday. We went five in our first match, so it's kind of nice to have that experience for young team and to actually win it as well. I thought we played some of our best ball here at the end of these last couple of sets of this match. So we got a lot accomplished."

GAME NOTES

• This was Mercyhurst's first game of the season. They were scheduled to play on Friday at West Chester, but all games in that tournament were canceled. 
• Millersville has now taken both of their last two matchups against the Lakers and the win puts the series at 4-11 all-time.  They've matched their win total from the previous 12 seasons in the past three (2). 
• Millersville controlled set two all the way on the strength of five service aces.
• With their victory, Millersville maintained their flawless record against Roberts Wesleyan (3-0).

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• The Marauder's 8-0 run in game four of match one was their longest of the season. 
• They were again on the short end of the block margin; the Lakers collected 10 total blocks while the Marauders had just three.
• Emma Kerwin and Taylor Welter led the Marauders in kills with 15 and 14 apiece, respectively. 
• Millersville's hitters certainly benefited from the Redhawk's lack of net presence, as Kerwin and Welter again led the Marauders in kills with 15 and 14 apiece. That was on just 99 total Millersville points compared to the 117 in the previous match. 
• The Marauders' 25-11 lead at the end of set 2 was its biggest of the season thus far.
• Becca Hartranft set a career high with nine kills.