Beaver Wins 3 Straight, Moves Up in PSUAC

By: Noelle Miloszewski

Monaca, PA - The Penn State Beaver volleyball team, which started the season on a 0-5 losing streak, defeated No. 3 ranked Penn College as well as Penn State Hazleton on Saturday to improve its conference record to 9-3.

"We're improving everyday," Head Coach Dan Smith said of the team's success.

It shows. In the first game of its dual-match on Saturday, Beaver faced off against Penn College and won in five sets. In the last set, Beaver scored its final two points with a solid block by Myranda Raymond and a smart play by Kayla Helble, who got blocked, but quickly responded by pushing the ball to the back corner for the game winning point.

In its second game of the dual-match, Beaver swept Penn State Hazleton in three sets.

Assistant Coach Will Enders agreed that the team has continually improved since the beginning of the season. 

"The past few games, they've talked better and passed a lot better. We're also hustling to the ball more now." 

Kellie Karasack, one of the team's captains, said that it's taken awhile, but the team has really come together.

"I'll be the first to admit the beginning of the season was really rough. It took awhile but we finally started to work together and use the talent we all knew we had."

Karasack has been a consistent leader for Beaver, and notched an impressive 41 assists against Penn College and 23 against Hazleton on Saturday.

However, other players are stepping up, too.

"We've seen strong performances from Nikki (Donelson), Kayla (Helble) and Khalihia (Hines) in the past three games," Smith said. 

With the team's success, playoffs are a definite possibility.

"We have finally started to put it all together, and it shows through our attitudes and performance in each game at this point in the season," Karasack said.

** Beaver is now 10-12 overal, 9-3 in the PSUAC. On Sunday, Oct. 10, the team travels to compete against Penn State Greater Allegheny.

Stats leaders vs. Penn College:

Kills: Heather Sandusky (New Brighton/New Brighton, PA) - 20

Assists: Karasack (Seneca Valley/Cranberry Twp.) - 41

Digs: Gina Richman (Union/New Castle, PA) - 10

Stats leaders vs. Penn State Hazleton:

Kills: Sandusky -11; and Nikki Donelson (McKeesport/McKeesport, PA) - 9

Assists: Karasack - 23

Digs: Becca Thomas (New Brighton/New Brighton, PA) - 2