West Chester at Lock Haven
Match Details: October 4 I 6 P.M.
Location: Thomas Field House I Lock Haven, Pa.
Coverage Links: Live Stats I Video I Tickets
Series: 9-30 (WCU has won 9-of-11 since 2015)
WCU Links: NEWS I ROSTER I SCHEDULE I STATS
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West Chester at Bloomsburg
Match Details: October 5 I 12 P.M.
Location: Nelson Field House I Bloomsburg, Pa.
Coverage Links: Live Stats I Video
Series: 7-1
Bloomsburg Links: NEWS I ROSTER I SCHEDULE I STATS
Last Time Out
West Chester rolled to a 3-0 victory over Lincoln on Wednesday night in non-league action, defeating the visiting Lions in just under an hour by 25-12, 25-10, 25-17 finals. West Chester hit a blistering .413 on the match, including a .476 in the first set and .556 in the second to roll past the Lions. Zoe Haines (York, Pa./York Suburban) was outstanding in the victory, finishing with a match-high nine kills on 11 swings and an otherworldly .727 hitting percentage. West Chester also registered 16 aces in the victory, led by four from newcomer Macey Baum (Spring Grove, Pa./Spring Grove) and three each from Sydney Heffner (Bath, Pa./Northampton), Lexy Caltabiano (Woolwich Twp., N.J./GCIT), and Lacie Brown (Cochranville, Pa./Avon Grove).
Flock Talk
Entering the weekend with a record of 7-6 on the year and 0-1 in league play, West Chester is looking for a pair of big PSAC East victories this weekend to continue its strong stretch of play and improve to 2-1 in league play entering a big weekend against perennial powers Shepherd and Shippensburg the following weekend.
Anna Richardson (Smyrna, Del./Smyrna) and Haines remain the team leaders in kills with 120 and 114, while Brown is already just one assist shy of her 300th for the year at 299 and is second on the team in digs with 91.
Serving Up History
Heffner enters the weekend just two aces shy of moving into a tie for 11th in program history in aces with Lisa Campbell and her 157, which she registered from 2008-11. Once Heffner matches Campbell, she will not have far to go to crack the top-10 as Nicole Vetock is 10th with 164 and is only nine kills from Greta Neff in fifth. The graduate student libero is also first on the team in digs, with 178 on the year.
Heating Up
Wednesday night’s triumph was the fifth in six tries for head coach Kassie Bellaver’s Golden Rams and the fourth time in those five matches that West Chester triumphed in straight sets.
Series History
West Chester holds a 7-1 lead in the all-time series over Bloomsburg after splitting the season against the Huskies for the first time a year ago. Against Lock Haven, West Chester is just 9-30 vs the Bald Eagles, although the Golden Rams have won 9 out of 11 since 2015, including a 3-1 win in the regular-season finale in Hollinger a year ago.
Scouting Lock Haven
Lock Haven, who slipped into the PSAC Tournament last year under a complex sets won tiebreaker despite falling to West Chester on the final day of the regular season, enters play on Saturday with a record of just 2-7 on the year 0-1 in league action. The Bald Eagles followed a similar early season script to West Chester, winning one match on its opening weekend before defeating Lincoln later in September, but have hit hard times in other matches, including a 3-1 loss to Bloomsburg to begin Homecoming Weekend in Lock Haven last week. Against Bloomsburg, Lock Haven split the first two sets, dropping the first before winning the second, but struggled as the match wore on, dropping the third and the fourth relatively quickly to start league action with a loss.
Lock Haven enters play as a team, hitting just .095 percent on the year, as Evie Jane Rembold leads the team in both kills (53) and blocks (19). Kelly Gaston leads the team in assists with 204, aces with 14, and digs with 62. Natalie Acevedo leads the squad in digs with 102, while Madison Eckley is second with 72.
Scouting Bloomsburg
Bloomsburg's story on paper is similar to that of the Bald Eagles. It enters the weekend with a record of 3-10 overall and a mark of 0-1 in league action. Bloomsburg opened PSAC East play with the aforementioned 3-1 victory over Lock Haven and will open its weekend against Millersville, who defeated West Chester by a 3-1 final to open East play last week.
As a team, Lock Haven enters play, hitting just .108 on the year, led by Marlee Johnson, who leads the team in kills with 159, while also fifth in blocks with 10. Elise Adelman is first on the team in assists with 405 and aces with 23 while ranking second in digs with 112, trailing only Emily Gustie, who has 138 to her name.
