Penn State Beaver Falls Short in Season Opener

By: Marcus Smith

Monaca, Pa—In today's second round of matches Penn State Beaver fell short to Alfred State, and Rochester College with losing 3-0 in both games. 

In the first match against Alfred State, Beaver hustled well, but couldn't consistently earn kills on offense.  Their closest set with Alfred was a 16-25 loss.  Despite the difference in score, three players had 3 kills apiece in the match; senior middle hitter, Natalie Gamble (McKees Rocks, PA/Sto-Rox), freshman outside hitter, Ryanne "Roxy" Kie (Laguna, NM/Laguna Acoma) and freshman defensive specialist, Julianna Kon (Hopewell, PA/Hopewell).  Kie also played well defensively with 11 digs in the match.   Beaver showed great heart in the match and Coach Bertges was very impressed with the way her team played.  She noted that they are talented, but young and have a lot to learn and will continue to grow together as they move into the rest of their season.

In their final match against Rochester College it was a faster paced game than they are used to with the opposing team running a faster offense, and who is a contender for the national championship every year, also a disciplined team.  The closest set was the third set with the score ending 25-15. Beaver improved every round with only scoring 8 in their first set and scoring 15 on their last set. Regardless of the score Natalie Gamble (McKees Rocks, PA/Sto-Rox), freshman outside hitter, and Ryanne "Roxy" Kie (Laguna, NM/Laguna Acoma) had 7 kills combined. Brittany David's (Beaver Falls, PA/Blackhawk) led the team with 7 assists and 1 kill on a dump.

Leading the defense today in both of those matches was Ryanne "Roxy" Kie (Laguna, NM/Laguna Acoma) who had 21 digs. David's led the team with assist today having 16 assists; Gamble had 7 kills in both matches. Mackenzie Keller, Conway, PA / Freedom outside hitter freshman had the only ace of the game.

The ladies will be hosting the PSUAC/ WPCC Challenge Tournament on September 5^th and 6^th.