Women’s Volleyball Stumble in Final Weekend of Regular Season

By: Frank Maira, Assistant Director of Athletics/Sports Information Director

SHARON, Pa. – The Penn State Mont Alto volleyball team stumbled a bit this past weekend dropping both ends of a tri-match on Saturday before losing a hard fought five-setter to Penn State Shenango on Sunday. PSUMA fell 3-1 to Penn State DuBois and 3-1 to Cincinnati Clermont in the away tri-match on Saturday.

 Set Scores

• Penn State DuBois won 25-15, 25-20, 18-25, 25-20.
• Cincinnati Clermont won 25-23, 25-25, 25-23, 25-22.
• Penn State Shenango won 25-22, 11-25, 25-20, 12-25, 15-11.

Penn State DuBois 3, Penn State Mont Alto 1

• With the win, PSU DuBois earned the season split with Mont Alto who won an epic five-set match earlier this season.
• It was a back-and-forth affair amongst the school's big hitters, DuBois's outside hitter Allison Easton totaled a match-best 31 points on 24 kills. Meanwhile for Mont Alto, Kylee Gooding (Warriors Mark, Pa. / Tyrone Area) produced what turned out to be her best match of the weekend with 16 kills and 14 digs.

Cincinnati Clermont 3, Penn State Mont Alto 1

• Mont Alto finished the afternoon with 36 kills, 93 digs and eight service aces.
• Sophomore Melanie Tracey (York, Pa. / Dallastown Area) had a solid match on the backline with a team-best 18 digs and three aces.
• UC Clermont improved to 24-6 overall and expect to make serious noise in the USCAA National Tournament. The squad was recently voted as the unanimous No. 1 team in the USCAA Week 4 Coaches Poll rankings.
• Cincinnati Clermont had a balanced offensive attack with Alaina Smith (11), Sarah Andrews (12) and Zoe England (10) finishing with double-digit kills.

Penn State Shenango 3, Penn State Mont Alto 2

• Mont Alto didn't have its killer instinct on Sunday and grinded its way through the first set and their rally was too little to late.
• It was almost a tale of two teams as Mont Alto dominated the second and fourth sets owning double-digit margins of victory. PSU Shenango simply was able to outhit PSUMA and that happened in the decisive fifth set. Overall, Shenango had 51 kills compared to Mont Alto's 40 with both teams nearly having the exact same number of swings.
• Jenna Bornemiss recorded 26 assists to lead Shenango while Donique Marcella tallied 22 digs. Freshman Kylee Gooding (Warriors Mark, Pa. / Tyrone Area) led the Nittany Lions with 13 kills and 17 digs.
• Alyssa Roberts (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) and Katie Muse (Hagerstown, Md. / Boonsboro) totaled a combined 42 assists.

Penn State Mont Alto (16-10, 6-6 PSUAC) clinched a berth into the PSUAC Tournament as the No. 4 seed in the west division due to owning the tie-breaker over Penn State DuBois. Mont Alto will travel to the No. 1 seed where they will face off against Penn State Fayette (21-3, 10-1 PSUAC) in the quarterfinals. Game time is slated for 7 p.m.