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Millersville

Welter

Women's volleyball's postseason hopes rest on final weekend's matches

| By: Wes Champlin, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

11/15 vs. Shippensburg: 

11/16 vs. Shepherd: 

Vs. Shippensburg:

  • Series: 11-33
  • Series Streak: Shippensburg, 4
  • First Meeting: L, 0–3 (1990)
  • Last Meeting: W, 3–1 (2024)

 

Vs. Shepherd:

  • Series: 5-10
  • Series Streak: Shepherd, 1
  • First Meeting: L, 1–3 (2009)
  • Last Meeting: L, 0–3 (2024)

ABOUT THE MATCHES

  • The Millersville women's volleyball team (14-13, 6-6) hosts Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) East Division rivals Shippensburg (16-11, 10-2) and Shepherd (21-4, 12-0) on Nov. 15 & 16, respectively. It is the last two matches of the regular season for the Marauders and will determine their playoff fate. Two wins would ensure a PSAC playoff berth, while the outcome of a split or two losses would depend on how well Bloomsburg does in its matches. 
  • Saturday's 2 p.m. match against the Rams is also Millersville's Senior Day. The Marauders will be honoring seniors Emma Ludwig, Madison Von Neida and Mya Cascario, who have each spent the last four years with the program. 

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

  • It is a season-defining weekend for the 2024 edition of Millersville's women's volleyball team. The Marauders enter play on Friday with a 6-6 conference record, a mark that is good for sole possession of fourth in the PSAC East. They are one game back of the East Stroudsburg Warriors and one game ahead of the Bloomsburg Huskies and West Chester Golden Rams. Millersville holds a tiebreaker over East Stroudsburg and West Chester but not Bloomsburg due to the outcome of each season series.
  • After a slow start to the conference slate, Millersville has come on strong over the past month. Since Oct. 18, the Marauders sport a 5-2 league mark with wins over East Stroudsburg and Lock Haven. Part of that has been the team's season-long dominance at home; they have an 11-4 record when competing with in the friendly confines of the 'Ville.
  • Another reason why the Marauders have found success of late is because of an increased presence in the middle and at the net. Middle blocker Caroline Halsey and middle hitter Sam White have had the best stretches of their respective careers in recent weeks. White has been quietly excellent all season, and while she's fifth on the team in kills with 129, she's tops on the team and third in the conference in hitting percentage with a mark of .334.
  • Halsey has had a breakout junior season and her play has reached even higher levels since the Sept. 28 match against Goldey-Beacom. Since that date, the third-year Marauder has recorded 103 kills to 14 errors while taking home a PSAC East Defensive Athlete of the Week award. That's because of Halsey's consistent efforts on the defensive end; in her last seven matches she's had five or more total blocks four times after reaching that mark twice in her first 72 contests. She set a career high with seven total blocks on Nov. 8 at Kutztown as well. Halsey's hitting percentage is a few ticks behind her frontline mate White at .308, a number that puts her 10th in the conference. 
  • A trio of outside hitters rounds out the Marauder attack in Taylor Welter, Emma Kerwin and Kylee Schurig. Kerwin and Welter are tied for the team lead in kills with 296 while Schurig is not far behind at 269. Welter and Kerwin's 296 putaways put them in a tie for eighth in the PSAC while Schurig's 44 service aces gives her sole possession of eighth in that category. Althought recent matches have featured a more balanced attack, Kerwin has been the team's most prolific kill-artist over the team's last six matches; she's reached double figures in finishes in five of those six matches while hitting above .215 each time. 
  • The Marauders' three seniors complete the teams' rotation. Libero Madison Von Neida saved her best season for last, as she's set career highs in every single statistic. Most notable of these is her team-high 486 digs, a number that ranks her third among all PSAC athletes; she tallied career dig number 1,000 against East Stroudsburg on Nov. 9. Von Neida has reached double digits in digs in all but three of her matches this season and has done so in each of her last nine contests. 
  • Mya Cascario has been the team's go-to service-woman this season and the numbers reflect that, as she's second on Millersville and 10th in the PSAC with 42 service aces. That marks a career high for the senior defensive specialist as does her 180 digs, and she was one short of a career-high with four aces in the Marauders' win over Kutztown on Nov. 8. 
  • Emma Ludwig enters her final weekend as a Marauder hoping to round out a historic career with a berth in the postseason. It would be the first time the Marauders have made the PSAC Playoff Tournament in any of the senior's tenure at the ‘Ville. The Marauders’ all-time leader in assists has put up her third 1,000-dime season and looks to break her personal best of 1,029 set last season (she currently has 1,003). She enters the weekend having put up two of her best all-around performances of the season in consecutive matches. Against Kutztown, Ludwig had eight kills, two aces, eight digs and four total blocks without making an error. She followed that up by recording six kills, eight digs and matching a career-high with six block assists against East Stroudsburg. 

SCOUTING THE RAIDERS

  • The Raiders have already clinched the second seed in the playoff race with a 10-2 record against conference foes. Their only two losses came to Shepherd and they enter this match winners of their last four in a row in addition to 13 of their last 15.
  • Kearstin Davis is Shippensburg's setter and has racked up the assists this season, recording 20 or more dimes in every single contest en route to the PSAC lead in that category with 1,028. The junior is coming off of an All-PSAC East First Team selection in 2023 and will probably receive the same honor in 2024. 
  • The main beneficiary of Davis' sets has been outside hitter Emily Gardner, who ranks just ahead of Kerwin and Welter in the kills department with 316. That puts her in a sixth place tie in the conference, and she is the only Raider that ranks in the top 15 in putaways. That is partly due to how spread out much of the team's offensive output is; after Gardner, the players with the next most kills are all listed as middles. 
  • Junior middle blocker Isabelle Bombas is having a breakout 2024, ranking second on Shippensburg in kills with 201 while leading the team in hitting percentage at .325. That number puts her fifth in the conference in that category. Also of note in the middle for the Raiders is fellow middle blocker Natalya Montague, who ranks third on the team in kills with 157. Bombas and Montague are first and second on the team in total blocks with 63.0 and 53.0, respectively. The net could be a weakness for Shippensburg, as the team is last in the PSAC in blocks per set at 1.36. 
  • The Raiders have profited in the serve/receive game this season, as they feature four players in the PSAC's top 11 in service aces. DS/L Shay Kolivoski leads the way with 47 while Davis is right behind with 46. Berkely Simmons and Kat Negron round out that quartet with 43 and 41, respectively. That's culminated in Shippensburg's first-place rank in the conference in aces with 240. They and Millersville are two of the five teams that have totaled more than 200 this season. 

SCOUTING THE RAMS

  • After a down year in 2023, the Shepherd Rams have returned to dominance in 2024. The Rams have rattled off 13 straight victories since entering conference play on Sept. 27. In an odd twist, all four of the teams' losses came in in the IUP tournament on Sept. 20 and 21, where they went 0-4. Like the other 11 teams that have had the herculean task of beating the Rams at home, the Marauders did not fare so well on Oct. 12, losing in straight sets.
  • Key to the team's success is an imposing front line and an evenly-distributed attack. Right side hitter Joi Fairweather paces the Rams in kills with 232 but it is middle hitter Rylee Lenz that has been the most efficient of the Rams' top attackers. She's posted a hitting percentage of .329 from the middle on 223 kills this season, and the former ranks fourth in the conference right between Millersville's Sam White and Shippensburg's Isabelle Bombas. Shepherd's other two top attackers are Sophia Ryan and Amya Davis, who have 197 and 196 kills, respectively. 
  • The Rams as a team have the second most total blocks in the conference (246.5) and are led by the aforementioned Ryan, who also leads the conference in denials with 129.0. The sophomore earned a PSAC East Athlete of the Week nod and a Defensive Athlete of the Week nod in the month of October. Ryan has reached double figures in total blocks twice this season and had five or more in seven straight matches between Sept. 21 and Oct. 12. Fairweather and Lenz have also made their presence known at the net this season and have totaled 110.0 and 99.0 blocks, respectively. 

THE LAST TIME OUT

  • Millersville: Millersville 1, East Stroudsburg 3 (Nov. 9, 2024) - Millersville fell 3-1 at the hands of the Warriors last weekend with the fourth set needing overtime to be decided. After a slow start, the Marauders bounced back, matching East Stroudsburg's score over the final three sets.
  • Shippensburg:  Shippensburg 3, Lock Haven 0 (Nov. 9, 2024) - The Raiders secured the two seed in the PSAC Playoff Tournament with a sweep of the Bald Eagles last Saturday. Gardner paced the Raiders in kills with 14 while Bombas did the same in blocks with five.
  • Shepherd: Shepherd 3, Bloomsburg 0 (Nov. 9, 2024) – Shepherd cruised past the Huskies with a 3-0 victory on Nov. 9. The Rams won the first and last set by 10 while taking the middle bout by five. Fairweather led the team in kills and total blocks with 14 and six, respectively.
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