The SRU women’s volleyball team ended the weekend with a pair of conference losses at home, falling 1-3 to Edinboro University Friday before an 0-3 loss to Gannon University Saturday.
The Fighting Scots opened Friday night taking each of the first two sets 25-21. Slippery Rock would respond by taking the third set 25-15, ending the chance of an Edinboro sweep. However, SRU would be toppled in the fourth set, with Edinboro victorious 25-18.
Of the 16 players who saw action on Friday’s match, Kaitlyn Danszczak and Gwen McCarthy led The Rock’s offense with 11 kills each. McCarthey also recorded a career-high three aces, while Danszczak tallied two blocks and six digs for the Friday action.
Victoria Nalbach recorded three blocks off the bench for Slippery Rock, while Chloe Shirk and Hayden Deming rounded out the night with four kills apiece.
In the contest, The Rock recorded seven aces, marking the third highest team total on the year and the most since the opening day of the season.
Slippery Rock finished the night leading Edinboro in kills (45-40) and digs (53-45). However, the Fighting Scots held the advantage over The Rock in blocks (8-7) for the match. Both teams recorded seven aces.
For Edinboro, Makayla Neelands led the Fighting Scots two aces and a 10-kill, 14-dig double-double.
Saturday afternoon’s matchup against Gannon wouldn’t prove to be much better, as Slippery Rock fell in three sets to the Golden Knights, 25-22, 25-13 and 25-9.
Ava Haynes led The Rock with six kills, followed by Ali Haynes and McCarthy, who each had four, followed by Deming with three of her own. Shirk and Nalbach rounded out the stat sheet with two each.
Emily Loeffler (10) and Paityn Krause (9) recorded a combined 19 assists. Krause and Danszczak each recorded an ace for The Rock in the contest, with Sydney Stevenson adding seven digs.
Gannon held advantages over Slippery Rock in a majority of team stats, including kills (37-22), aces (7-2), digs (36-28) and blocks (4-1). Leading for the Golden Knights was Abby Williams with eleven kills and three aces.
With the pair of losses, SRU now sits at a 5-11 record and is winless in the PSAC West (0-5). The Rock will return to action Oct. 9 to take on Seton Hill University in a road contest.
