West Chester vs East Stroudsburg
Game Details: October 18 I 6 P.M.
Location: Hollinger Field House (West Chester, Pa.)
Coverage Links: Live Stats I Video
Series: 38-46
WCU Links: NEWS I ROSTER I SCHEDULE I STATS
ESU Links: NEWS I ROSTER I SCHEDULE I STATS
West Chester vs Kutztown
Game Details: October 19 I 1 P.M.
Location: Hollinger Field House (West Chester, Pa.)
Coverage Links: Live Stats I Video
Series: 30-24
Kutztown Links: NEWS I ROSTER I SCHEDULE I STATS
Last Time Out
West Chester will look to bounce back from a disappointing weekend away from home last week, which saw the Golden Rams fall to Shepherd by a 3-1 final on Friday night and Shippensburg by a 3-0 final on Saturday afternoon. At Shippensburg, West Chester gave the Raiders all they could handle in the first and third sets, pushing the score to 25-22 in the first and 29-27 in the third, but a 25-10 second-set victory was enough to help Shippensburg escape with a 3-0 win over the Golden Rams. Zoe Haines (York, Pa./York Suburban) led all players in kills with 11, while Anna Richardson (Smyrna, Del./Smyrna) chipped in nine of her own. Lacie Brown (Cochranville, Pa./Avon Grove) led the match in assists with 34, while Sydney Heffner (Bath, Pa./Northampton) posted a match-high 16 digs in the setback.
Flock Talk
After winning six of seven to finish September and start October on a high note, the West Chester University women’s volleyball team has dropped each of its last three matches to slip to 8-9 overall and 1-4 in league action heading into another weekend of PSAC East action.
Richardson and Haines have continued their excellent 2024 seasons in recent weeks as they continue to lead the team in kills with 162 and 151, while Brown leads the team in assists (439) and aces (20) while ranking second to Heffner (234) in digs with 122 of her own. Nicole Dimiris (Hockessin, Del./Saint Mark’s) and Julia Kwtichoff (Niagara Falls, N.Y./Niagara Wheatfield) rank first and second in blocks with 39 and 32, respectively.
Dig Pink
This weekend will serve as Dig Pink weekend for West Chester as the Golden Rams work to raise money for the Side-out Foundation and its work in the fight against Breast Cancer. WCU students in attendance will be entered into a raffle for the chance to win gift cards, with the drawing occurring after the matches on Friday and Saturday.
Home Sweet Home
Friday night’s game will be the first of four straight and six of seven in Hollinger for West Chester. The team will play three straight conference games against ESU (10/18), Kutztown (10/19), and Millersville (10/23) before facing non-league foe Queens on 10/26. After a road trip to New Jersey to face off against Georgian Court for its non-league finale, West Chester will start November at home against Lock Haven and Bloomsburg on November 1st and 2nd.
Heating Back Up
West Chester enters play on a three-game losing streak, which halted an impressive run that saw it win six of seven matches, five of which came in straight sets.
Series History
West Chester heads into the weekend trailing ESU in the all-time series by a 46-38 margin after losing two straight and four of the last five against the Warriors. West Chester dominated the series for an almost 10-year stretch, winning 19 in a row from 2007 through November 2016 before falling to ESU in October 2017, as the series has since become much tighter.
Against Kutztown, West Chester holds a 30-24 lead in the all-time series and has won three in a row and eight of the last 10 dating back to 2018. Before this loss to Kutztown in October 2018, which came at Kutztown, West Chester had not lost to the Golden Bears since a five-set loss away from home in October 2012. West Chester has not lost to Kutztown in Hollinger Field House since November 2011, when that setback came as part of a three-game losing streak for the Golden Rams.
Scouting ESU
East Stroudsburg, which started PSAC play 1-2 after a pair of early losses to Shippensburg and Shepherd, has bounced back nicely. Last weekend, it posted a pair of wins over Bloomsburg and Lock Haven to enter this weekend at 12-4 overall and 3-2 in league play.
Against Lock Haven last Saturday afternoon, East Stroudsburg found itself in a battle for much of the early part of the afternoon, fighting its way to a pair of 25-22 victories in the first and second sets before rolling to a 25-14 win in the third set to secure the 3-0 victory. Anna Coulter led ESU in kills and blocks with 12 and four while also registering three aces, which was second-best on the team, trailing only Taylor Haan, who recorded seven in the sweep. Haan also led the team in assists with 31, while Leonor Chambel came away with nine digs in the victory.
Coulter has been a steady force for ESU throughout the season, leading the team in kills (219) and blocks (74) while ranking second in aces with 21, trailing only Haan, who leads the team in assists (566) and aces (36). Haan is also second on the team in digs and blocks, registering 123 digs and 29.0 blocks, while Chambel is the team leader in digs with 241 in her final season as a Warrior.
Scouting Kutztown
Kutztown (1-17, 0-5) enters play this weekend in the midst of a season that seems to have gotten long quickly. The Golden Bears enter late October with a mark of just 1-17 after earning their first and, to this point, lone win of the year over Caldwell on September 30 while also going 0-5 through their first five PSAC games of the season. Kutztown has been close in most of these matchups, however, battling to a 3-1 loss to Shepherd, a 3-2 loss to Lock Haven, and a 3-1 loss at Bloomsburg, with the lone straight-set losses coming against East Stroudsburg and Shippensburg.
On Saturday afternoon against Bloomsburg, Kutztown battled throughout the match and pushed two sets to extra points (27-25, 25-22, 25-27, 25-20), but it was not enough to escape with its first PSAC victory of the year against a resilient Bloomsburg team. Grace White led the team in kills and blocks with 15 and three, while Saige Thibodeaux led the team in assists with 36, along with 15 digs and an ace. Lexi McLanahan led the team in digs in the setback, finishing with 18 of her own.
For the year, Sarah Hess led the team in kills (139) and blocks (51), while Grace White is third in kills with 84 and second in blocks with 50. Emma Baldridge leads the team in assists with 224 while ranking second in digs with 142, trailing only McLanahan, who leads the team in aces (38) and digs (276).
