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Millersville

Elizabeth Villegas Serve

Marauders host Kutztown in PSAC East matchup

| By: Wes Champlin, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant
  • Series: 19-12
  • Series Streak: Kutztown, 1
  • First Meeting: L, 2–3 (1990)
  • Last Meeting: L, 0–3 (2022)

ABOUT THE MATCH

  • Both teams are on the second half of a back-to-back, although Millersville holds the edge there as the home team. This will be the first matchup between the Marauders and the Golden Bears this season.
  • The Golden Bears enter with a 7-7 record overall and sit at 0-2 in PSAC play. The Marauders have a 5-8 record and have gone 0-2 in conference matchups thus far.

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

  • Millersville comes in looking for their first conference victory of the season after falling 3-1 to East Stroudsburg Friday night. This will be their second home match of the season against a PSAC East opponent.
  • In the absence of starting outisde hitter Taylor Welter, a few freshmen have stepped up, especially Emma Kerwin. She's led the team in kills in every match since Sept. 9 except for one. Since that date, only twice has a non-freshman finished in the top three on the team in kills for a match. Kerwin leads the team in kills with 187 and sits sixth in the PSAC in the statistic. She's coming off of the best game of her young career against East Stroudsburg, when she set a new team-high in kills with 24. 
  • Becca Hartranft and Alex Nava have also responded to the challenge. Hartranft finished second on the team in kills behind Kerwin in their matchup against Chestnut Hill. Hartranft led the team in kills the only time Kerwin has not in the past six matches. Against East Stroudsburg, Nava recorded 16 kills to place second on the team and set a new career-high. 
  • Emma Ludwig leads the team in assists with 483 and is coming off of a match in which she dished out 46. That number puts her at third in the PSAC.
  • Elizabeth Villegas reclaimed the role of libero against Chestnut Hill and started in that position last night against East Stroudsburg. Madison Von Neida had been coach Brian Smith's libero for the previous four matches.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN BEARS

  • The Golden Bears sport a record of 7-7 on the season and sit at 0-2 in conference play having lost to West Chester on Friday night.
  • The two players to watch out for on the offensive end for the Golden Bears are a pair of graduate students in Sadie Doss and Gabriela Fialova. Doss leads the team with 250 kills while Fialova ranks second with 225. The pair is also top five in the PSAC in that stat, with Doss placing second and Fialova placing fifth thus far this season.
  • On the receiving end, Kutztown has had contributions from all over the court. Four players have over 100 digs on the season.
  • At the net, Julia Post and Grace Ingram are key players. Post leads the team with 26 total blocks while Ingram slots in just behind her with 25.
  • The Golden Bears and Marauders have faced a few common opponents this season, most recently playing West Chester, Gannon and East Stroudsburg. They were swept by East Stroudsburg and Gannon before taking West Chester to five sets. 

THE LAST TIME OUT

  • Millersville: Millersville 1, East Stroudsburg 3 (Sept. 29, 2023) - Millersville hosted East Stroudsburg and fell in four sets to the visitors. Emma Kerwin and Alex Nava both set career highs in kills with 24 and 16, respectively. After being blown out in the first set, the Marauders battled back in sets two and three.
  • Kutztown:  West Chester 3, Kutztown 2 (Sept. 29, 2023) - Kutztown is coming off of a heartbreaking loss to West Chester in five sets on Friday night. The Golden Bears won the first two sets and sat one away from winning a match in West Chester for the first time in over a decade. However, West Chester responded by taking the next three in succession and dashing those hopes. 

SERIES HISTORY

  • Millersville holds a significant edge in the series history with an overall record of 19-12. The teams split last years matchups, each via a sweep. 
  • Since 2012, the rivalry has been quite lopsided. The Marauders have won 14 of 17 matches in that timespan including an 11-game winning streak from 2013-2021. 
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