Lady Lions Trounce Butler County Community College

By: Matylda Zamudio

Monaca, Pa. -- The Penn State Beaver women's volleyball team hosted Butler County Community College on Monday. After losing a close game against Penn State Mont Alto, the ladies sought to claim a victory this evening on their home-court. While Beaver lost their first two home games of the season, the ladies have greatly improved their performance at home by winning their last three out of four on their home turf.

In the first few minutes of the game, Beaver jumped out to a 9-3 lead. Alexis Albrecht, who was at serve, ran off nine straight points. The teams then dueled back and forth in the following minutes, and Butler was able to tie the game at 13-13. The close battle continued, and the teams tied again at 20-20. At the final minutes of the set, Beaver fended off Butler from scoring the needed two points to win as the team took the close-knit set, 25-23.

In the next set, Albrecht went on a six-point run as the server. Looking to cool down Beaver's momentum, Butler then called a time-out. The ladies went unrattled and began to frustrate and outmaneuver Butler's defenders at the net, going up 12-1, which forced Bulter to call their second timeout. Beaver dominated the remaining the minutes of the set, causing Butler to fold, and the ladies to win the set by a landslide, 25-5.

The third set presented a more formidable challenge for the Lady Lions, as Butler went up 2-0 in the first few minutes. But their lead was short-lived, as Beaver quickly recovered and gained the lead after Emily Keener ran off with the next four points. In the middle of the set, Beaver controlled the lead at 16-10, which caused Butler to take their second time-out. The score became tight again, as Butler started to chisel down the point deficit to four points at 19-15. Just as the end of the first set, the Lady Lions locked-in and won the set 25-17, recording another Beaver win with a final score of 3-0.

Brooke Tomasko led the offense with 10 kills and Amanda Mike followed right behind her with 5 kills. Keener also had an outstanding 16 assists and contributed an admirable 6 service aces. Albrecht also had an impressive performance on defense with 13 digs.

With this evening's win, the Lady Lions have now improved to 4-5 overall and will play at home again on Thursday, Sept. 19, against Carlow University. The game begins at 7 p.m.