Over this past weekend, the Elizabethtown College Women’s Volleyball team dominated at the Lycoming Invitational. The Blue Jays worked together as a team to 3-0 victories over Pitt-Bradford and Penn College in which they captured the team title in the process. First-year, Kristina Smith’s double-double of 11 kills and 21 digs carved the path for the Blue Jays’ in a 25-21, 25-19, 25-20 win over Pitt-Bradford (3-4). Freshmen Mackenzie Garner and Janae Moran had 11 and 9 kills respectively. Senior, Steph High registered her third straight 30-plus assist match. Teammates and classmates Shannon Deck and Juliana Mowen reached double figures in number of digs finishing with 20 and 10 respectively.
Elizabethtown finished with a .221 hitting percentage and 39 kills to the Panthers’ .209 and 30 kills. They topped out in the third set with .333 with 16 kills on 36 attempts.
Against Penn College, the Blue Jays were golden. First-years Sarah Schneider and Anna Simpson caused the Wildcats major issues. Schneider had a match-high of 11 kills and Simpson had seven aces in her Elizabethtown College Women’s Volleyball debut. Elizabethtown’s (7-2) contributions were across the board. They won the first two sets by 25-17 scores and then held Penn College to just eight points in the third set. Eight points are the fewest points the Blue Jays have ever allowed since taking the first set over Misieracordia, 25-8, on October 5th, 2013. Senior Victoria Leidy and sophomore Emily Sexton both totaled five kills and two aces. Freshman setter Brook Daugherty had six assists and two aces and sophomore middle-hitter Morgan Reiss came up with a pair of blocks. Kirstin Halliday, a freshman on the team, stepped in and delivered 21 assists and was another teammate with double-digit digs. Chelsea Gallagher finished the matches with seven digs.
Though winning the Lycoming Invitational freshman Kristina Smith thought the past weekend was really a test for the team. Seeing where they were at as a team with new members this invitational really showed the team where they are strong and where they are weak. She believes they played really well as a team this past weekend because even when things got tough they communicated and trusted one another. Going into more challenging matches she believes the team will carry more confidence and that will help them play better. With strong passing and defense she is confident that the team will travel far. Looking forward, she is very excited for the Washington, D.C. tournament in October.
The Blue Jays now hold a 7-2 overall record so far this season. The Elizabethtown College Blue Jays continue with the non conference play on Tuesday, September 15th at York, PA. The match time is at 7:00pm. They have their first conference match on September 22nd at Moravian College.
