Beaver defeats New Kensington at home, 3-0

By: Matylda Zamudio

Monaca, Pa. – In the team's second to last game of the season, the Penn State Beaver women's volleyball team hosted conference rival Penn State New Kensington on Tuesday night. Beaver comes into the game with a 14-10 overall record for the regular season and holds a 4-4 conference record. The Lady Lions are currently third in the west in the PSUAC conference standings. The teams faced each other earlier in the season, and Beaver was able to score a road game win against New Kensington. Beaver hopes to collect two more conference wins before heading into the post-season.

In the first set, Beaver came out fierce on offense in the first minute, scoring back-to-back points including a service ace. The Lady Lions kept the pressure on New Kensington's defenders and Cheyenne Sherman scored a quick kill to put Beaver up four points at 8-4 and the team stretched the lead to five points at 12-7 soon after. In the next rally, Ramiya White scored the next point for Beaver (13-7). New Kensington fought back for a brief stint and got the Beaver's lead down to five points until Brooke Tomasko scored back-to-back to widen the lead to six points (15-9). In the next few minutes with the game at 17-11, Beaver scored a quick service ace, prompting New Kensington to call the team's first time-out (18-11). New Kensington started to rattle and made errors at the net, including hitting the ball into the net to put the game at the set point for Beaver (24-15). Beaver scored on the next rally and took the set by 10 points (25-15).

In the second set, Tomasko hit a quick kill in the first rally. Then, Beaver went on a run and took a seven-point lead at 8-1. But New Kensington fought back and cut Beaver' lead to only three points at 11-8 and then down to two by 14-12. Then, Tomasko leaped and threw down a kill at 15-12. As the second set went on, the score remained within three points for several minutes. Then, White scored a late-game kill followed by a New Kensington player stepping under the net to put Beaver at the set point once again (24-18). Beaver went on to win the set two minutes later (25-19).

Up two sets to zero, the Lady Lions were hot and decided to put it into overdrive in the third set, taking an early four-point lead. The offense started to light up New Kensington's floor and the Lady Lions found themselves with an 11 point lead with the help of two back-to-back points from Tomasko late in the set (21-10). In the next few minutes, New Kensington hit the ball into the net once again, putting Beaver at set-point (24-13). On the final rally, White threw down a powerful kill and earned Beaver the final point of the set (25-15).

With another conference win under their belt, the Lady Lions improve to a 5-4 overall record in the PSUAC standings and hold down the number three spot in the west. Beaver will return for a tough matchup at home, where they face conference rival Penn State Fayette in the team's final game of the regular season this Saturday, Oct. 20. Game time is at 2 p.m.