Penn State Beaver Volleyball falls 0-2 to start the season

Monaca, PA - The Penn State Beaver Lady Lions kicked off their season today in the Tip Off Tournament. They ended up going 0-2 after day one with two very hard-fought matches. Their first match was against the Kent State Tuscarawas Golden Eagles, who they lost to 3-0 and their second match was against the Christendom Crusaders who beat them 3-1. 

In the first match of the day, Penn State Beaver fell to Kent State Tuscarawas by three sets to zero. In the first set, the Lady Lions went down early, giving up the first nine points to Kent State Tuscarawas. Later in the set Penn State Beaver started to get their offense rolling scoring seven points after going down early. Despite Penn State Beaver finding some offense late Kent State Tuscarawas went on to win the set 25-7. In the second set Penn State Beaver got off to another slow start giving up the first twelve points with the help of Kent State Tuscarawas' Kylie Culbertson getting four service aces out of those twelve points. Once again, the Lady Lions found some offense late scoring another seven points before losing the second set 25-7. In the third set of the match Penn State beaver got off to a much better start where they eventually went ahead 10-9 after being down 6-1. This run of points was sparked by an impressive kill by Beaver's Alexis Reid (Clinton, NC). Although Penn State Beaver seemed to have momentum, Kent State Tuscarawas answered back with eight points in a row that led to a 25-13 win in the set that secured them the match win.  

In the second match of the day for the Lady Lions, they played the Christendom Crusaders. Penn State Beaver got off to another slow start in the first set going down 5-0. Although they went down early, the Lady Lions stormed back to take the lead in the set 10-9. After this good run, the set stayed remarkably close all the way to the end where Beaver would end up losing 25-23. In the second set, Beaver gave up the first 3 points but quickly recovered and tied up the set at 4 a piece. Beaver would eventually go on to win this set 25-19 after a spark from Beaver's player of the game Sofia Perez (Bogota, Colombia) who would go on to get an impressive 12 kills in the match. To start the third set of the match Beaver flipped the script on the Crusaders and got off to a 4-0 start. After a hot start and a hard-fought set, the Lady Lions wound up losing 25-19. The fourth set looked much like the third with many points going back and forth, but unfortunately Beaver was just barely beaten 25-19 trying to send the match into a fifth and final set. 

Beaver looks to bounce back tomorrow at noon as they take on Penn State Greater Allegheny in a consolation match to try and get their first win of the season.