Lady Lions Stun New Kensington on the Road
By: Matylda Zamudio
New Kensington, Pa. – The Penn State Beaver women's volleyball team travel to New Kensington on Sunday afternoon to face conference rival New Kensington. The ladies come into the game after earning their first conference win at home yesterday afternoon against Penn State Greater Allegheny, improving their record to 1-2 in the conference standings. Beaver is on a roll and the team has won their last three games. The Beaver ladies desire to extend their winning streak against the ladies of New Kensington.
In the first set, Alexis Albrecht got hot at serve and helped Beaver take an early 6-0 lead in the first few minutes. Buckling under the pressure from Beaver's offense, New Kensington began making play errors and took a timeout at 16-6. Beaver continued to play tough and took the set 25-13.
Beaver played subs in the second set, and struggled for a bit in the second set and allowed New Kensington within striking distance to take the set. But the ladies hung on and won the set 26-24.
Not wanting New Kensington to bounce back in the third set, Beaver went back to the starting rotation. But the ladies dominated New Kensington and had no answer to slow down Beaver's offensive charge. After taking a comfortable lead over the visitors, Beaver substituted some of the starters towards the end of the set. New Kensington folded and gave Beaver the third set (25-15). The ladies won the match with a final score of 3-0 for the day.
Stephanie Stadjuhar led the offense with 8 kills and 1 ace, followed by Maria Slater with 6 kills and 3 aces. Alexis Albrecht was a force on both ends of the court with 11 digs and 5 aces. Emily Keener had another impactful performance, landing 19 assists and 9 digs for the day.
The women's volleyball team has won two back-to-back conference matches and has improved to a 7-5 overall record and 2-2 in the conference standings. The team will travel to Penn State Fayette on Tuesday, Sept. 25 to battle for another conference win. The game begins at 7 p.m.