In their four-game weekend, Slippery Rock volleyball walked away with two wins and two losses.
Day One
The Rock opened the weekend with a three-set victory against Malone University last Friday.
The Pioneers were first to put up points and quickly took the lead 8-1 in the first set.
Slippery Rock rallied to tie it 11-11 behind five errors and six combined kills from Callie Chevalier, Lauren VonderHaar and Ava Haynes.
MU reclaimed the lead, but SRU was always close behind. Three kills and an attack error gave the White and Green the lead, and they never looked back.
Set two was much of the same, with both teams fighting for the lead. The Rock took the lead 13-12 and was able to hold it until Malone tallied three kills and an attack error, jumping up to 22-19. SRU came back to gain seven points and win 26-24.
During the final set, Slippery Rock did not let Malone see the lead from the very beginning. A kill from Chevalier put SRU up 1-0, and that was it. MU stayed close behind, racking up nine kills in the set, but their efforts were not enough.
Chevalier led the charge with 14 kills during the match, followed closely by Marley Annis with 12.
The second game of the day was against Bluefield State University, which ended in a four-set win for The Rock.
Bluefield never saw the lead during the first set. The White and Green put five points up, only giving up one on a service error.
Bluefield put up a good fight, only staying a few points behind until The Rock gained six consecutive points with five combined kills by Annis, Kara Pasquale, Chevalier and VonderHaar, as well as a service ace.
Bluefield put up seven more points, but Slippery Rock won out 25-14.
Set two had a similar ending, but the Big Blue had the lead early 2-1. The Rock quickly recovered with two service aces and a kill.
A consecutive five more points gave SRU a lead that Bluefield could not recover from. After 10 kills, five service aces, and 10 service and attack errors, SRU came out on top 25-16.
The Big Blue were victorious for the third set, starting strong with five points right from the jump.
They continued to dominate the set, gaining 13 more points. Slippery Rock managed a couple of kills and errors in between.
A strong effort came when the White and Green scored four consecutive points, making it 21-13 but they came up short when the Big Blue came back with four points of their own to take the win 25-13.
The girls did not let that loss get to them, and they came back for the final set just as strong.
Even though Bluefield scored first, that was the last time they saw the lead. The Rock took a strong jump, 12-7, after kills by Victoria Nalbach and Marley, a service ace, and two attack errors.
The Big Blue almost made a comeback, getting to 14-13, but Slippery Rock quickly shut it down with two bad sets, seven kills, and two attack errors. They closed the set 25-13.
Day Two
Slippery Rock kicked off day two with game one against the University of Illinois Springfield.
UIS started strong with seven points right out of the gate.
The Rock gained two, and after a kill from Prairie Stars’ Makenna Cox, gained four more.
UIS tallied six more points, solidifying their lead.
Six service and attack errors, two kills, and two bad sets allowed The Rock to tally up more points, but the efforts fell short.
UIS took the first set 25-16.
Set two was similar with the Prairie Stars coming strong from the jump.
The White and Green found the lead once during the set when they brought the score to 11-10 after two kills and two attack errors.
UIS quickly bounced back with two kills and an attack error of their own.
With a kill from Slippery Rock’s Kaitlyn Danszczak and an attack error, they were able to tie it 14-14.
Points volleyed between the two teams, but six consecutive attack errors allowed for the Prairie Stars to take the win again, 25-17.
Slippery Rock put up more of a fight for the final set. While they never found the lead, they stayed close behind, putting the pressure on.
The Rock tallied 11 kills during the game, but UIS came out stronger. The set ended 25-23.
The final game of the weekend was against Bloomsburg University. The game ended in five sets with Bloomsburg coming out on top.
Slippery Rock found themselves in a two-set deficit and came back to win the third set 25-19 and the fourth 25-15.
SRU was quick to put points on the board for the finals set with a kill from Emry Rumbaugh. They obtained the lead 7-5 until Bloomsburg claimed the lead with four points of their own, making it 9-7.
The White and Green tallied five more points, but it wasn’t enough, and BU closed out the set 15-12.
Between the four games, the girls raked up a total of 171 kills and 239 digs. Chevalier reached her 700-kill milestone during the Friday games, which now puts her in 18th place in SRU career history.
The team will go on to compete in the D’Youville Tournament this weekend in Buffalo, New York.
