After a tough pair of losses last weekend, the Shippensburg University volleyball team got back on track on Friday and Saturday with strong wins over Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) competition in Slippery Rock University and Edinboro University.

Coach Leanne Piscotty said the team had a meeting on Thursday to refocus and get out of the funk it was in. She said the squad had been playing and practicing a little flat lately, and the meeting was good for the Raiders going into this weekend.

In the late-night matchup with the Rock, the Raiders never fell behind on their way to a straight-set victory. Slippery Rock was unable to get close to SU almost all night, falling in each set by scores of 25–14, 25–17 and 25–23. Passing and serving were the crucial improvements in the team’s performance that brought the win, according to Piscotty. The Raiders had eight aces on the night, along with 11 blocks. 

Junior Kendall Johnson had a great match, hitting .429 with 10 kills. She also was in on five blocks through the night. Fellow junior Gabriella Johnson also had a big part to play in the win, contributing a team-high 19 digs to go with five kills. 

Johnson currently sits in second on the team with 365 digs on the season. She has been a strong player on defense all year.

The sweep of Slippery Rock was SU’s 16th of the season. Sophomore Emily Hangen was key in the win, grabbing 29 assists while serving a career-high five aces. The Raiders jumped out to big early leads in each of the first two sets, reaching a 17–6 advantage in the first set and following it up with a 10–2 run to start the second.

The team had one of its lowest hitting percentages of the season — only reaching .145 as a unit — but stayed consistent on defense to keep the Rock from getting into the match. In the team’s following contest with Edinboro, the contest proved to be much more closely matched than with Slippery Rock.

The Fighting Scots put up a fight, but in the end, the Raiders made the necessary adjustments and closed out the match after giving up the second set. Neither team could really take a firm grasp and jump out to a big advantage in any set. They were evenly matched and every point was fought for.

After a fairly quiet night against the Rock, senior Morgan DeFloria returned to form to capture her 16th double-double of the season. She grabbed a team-high 16 kills to go with 11 digs. 

DeFloria recently joined the exclusive list of players in the 1,000 digs/1,000 kills club and has been a crucial member of the squad since her freshman season.

After grabbing 10 blocks the previous night, the Raiders did one better and collected 11 against Edinboro. Kendall Johnson was the key player in blocks, contributing to an impressive season-high seven. She also had eight kills, making it 18 on the weekend for the junior.

Junior Samantha Webber was also leading the charge in blocks with three, to go along with seven kills on .286 hitting. Piscotty’s theory was proved correct once again, as aces were a big part in the victory. DeFloria and Gabriella Johnson had three apiece, while senior Angela Tarabrella and redshirt-senior Courtney Malott contributed one each to total eight on the afternoon.

Junior Megan Forstburg had a team-high 24 digs — the 13th time she has reached 20 or more digs this season. Hangen was again the primary supplier for the team, racking up 36 assists to add to her team-leading total (1,047). She also grabbed four kills and 11 digs on .500 hitting.

Coach Piscotty said the Fighting Scots were able to grab the second set because they turned it around in terms of aces and precise passing. 

“That was the deciding factor between the set that we lost and the sets that we won — whether we were getting aces and keeping them out of system, or if they were getting aces in set two — they got quite a few,” Piscotty said. “That took us out of our rhythm and made us have to play a little tighter.”

Piscotty said she was glad the team was challenged in the match, because it forced the Raiders to adapt and improve over the course of the match. She said the momentum would be huge going into the final stretch of three games before heading into the PSAC playoffs.

The Raiders will travel to the University of Pitt-Johnstown (UPJ) on Tuesday in a rematch of the defeat that ended the school-record win streak earlier in the season. With the win on Saturday, however, SU clinched a spot in the PSAC playoffs for the 12th consecutive year. The match against UPJ will tip off at 7 p.m.

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