Conference Battle

     The Mont Alto Women's Volleyball team faced off against conference opponent PSU Brandywine last night for what proved to be a long battle tested night for both sides of the net.  Brandywine defeated Mont Alto in their first meeting two weeks ago, but Mont Alto was putting that all in the past for this game.

     The crowd at Mont Alto was fired up from the first serve, and stayed with their team until the end.  Although Brandywine came away with the first set win 25-19, Mont Alto had other ideas of how the second set would go as they rallied hard winning the second set 28-26.

     Mont Alto had their momentum building, the crowd behind them, and knew what they had to do.  With hard defense from Katie Graham and Alyssa Booth, who had 32 and 37 digs respectively on the night, Mont Alto took the third set 25-21.

     Brandywine still had fight left too however, as they came back strong in the fourth set.  Brandywine used everything they had, and finally came up with the set win to tie the match up 2-2.

     Going into the fifth set the crowd grew even louder, tension was higher, but the Mont Alto Volleyball team did what they do best, and played hard until they won the set 18-16 to take the match.

     Mont Alto's Jenny Halterman had a big night as well with her 40 Assists, while Melissa Orlandini had a game high14 kills. 

     Mont Alto Head Coach Jenn Stremmel knew that she had to focus her team to stay motivated throughout the entire match no matter what.  When Coach Stremmel was asked about how to prepare for a team like this she seemed confident in her game plan.  "We knew going into this game that we made a lot of mistakes during our last match against Brandywine. I kept reminding the team that for us, that is the best position to be in because we can control our fate in facing them again. Also, after watching the game film from our last match, I knew we had to step up our defensive game so that is what we worked on a lot in the practices leading up to last night's match," said Coach Stremmel.

    This conference win put Mont Alto into 2nd place in the PSUAC, and are currently sitting at #9 in the National Rankings. 

Mont Alto's Hannah Kauffman(9) giving her team a lift during the 5th set.