WEST CHESTER, Pa.- The West Chester University women's volleyball team (19-7, 7-5) gave East Stroudsburg (20-6, 10-3) all it could handle on Saturday afternoon in Hollinger Field House but fell to the rival Warriors by a 3-2 (25-22, 27-29, 38-30, 25-21, 15-8) final.
Zoe Haines (York, Pa./York Suburban) led West Chester in kills with 18, hitting .282 (18-7-39) in the setback.
The match was tremendously close throughout the afternoon, with 34 ties and 14 lead changes, including 16 ties and seven lead changes between the third and fourth sets alone.
Prior to the match, West Chester honored its senior class, which included
Abiah Lane,
Lexy Caltabiano,
Megan St. Jean,
Zoe Haines, Meg Wolfe, and
Lacie Brown.
West Chester and East Stroudsburg traded points early before the Golden Rams got kills from
CeCe Isenberg (Berwick, Pa./Berwick) and Brown to take a 17-15 lead and force the visiting Warriors into an early timeout. The timeout did its job as the Warriors halted the run with a 3-0 run of their own to take an 18-17 lead and force the Golden Rams into their first timeout of the match. West Chester tied the set at 21-21 before the Warriors went on a quick 2-0 run to take a 23-21 lead and force the Golden Rams into their second timeout of the opening set en route to a 25-22 victory over the Golden Rams.
West Chester hit just .231 (15-6-39) in the first set, while the Warriors hit .378 (17-3-37), led by nine kills from Anna Coulter.
Birtcil opened the second set with her third kill of the match as the Warriors got out to an early 5-0 lead, which forced the Golden Rams to take an early timeout. The Warrior run continued out of this timeout as the visitors got out to a 10-0 lead, forcing West Chester to take its second timeout of the set. After the deficit grew to 11-0, West Chester countered with a 17-10 run, which saw the hosts cut the East Stroudsburg lead to 21-17, following a
Brooke Foreseter (Langhorne, Pa./Conwell-Egan) kill, which forced the Warriors to take their first timeout of the set. A combo block by Forester and
Maeve Gallagher (Pottstown, Pa./Pope John Paul II) followed by a solo block by
Zoe Haines (York, Pa./York Suburban) and an ace by
Abiah Lane (Ardmore, Pa./Lower Merion) cut the lead to 21-20. After scoring eight of nine, Martinez halted the run, but West Chester continued to battle, eventually completing its monumental comeback with a 29-27 victory after a kill by Haines.
West Chester and East Stroudsburg traded points throughout much of the third set before a run by the Golden Rams, which included kills by Lane, Haines, Forester, and
Julia Kwitchoff (Niagara Falls, N.Y./Niagara Wheatfield), gave the Golden Rams an 18-15 lead and forced an ESU timeout. A kill by Brown got the West Chester lead to 21-17 and forced the visiting Warriors to burn their second timeout of the set. East Stroudsburg won two quick points out of the timeout, including an ace, which led to the first West Chester timeout of the set. The run continued as East Stroudsburg battled back to tie the set at 23-23, threatening to return the favor of a late-set comeback to the homestanding Golden Rams. Out of West Chester's second and final timeout of the set, Haines halted the run with a kill, but extra points were needed once again as the Golden Ram faithful was treated to free volleyball for the second set in a row. Kwitchoff picked up her 12
th kill of the match to make the score 29-28 in favor of West Chester as the Golden Rams took a 2-1 lead with a 30-28 third-set victory.
West Chester and East Stroudsburg continued trading points through the early going of the fourth set as the Warriors took a narrow 16-13 lead, which forced a West Chester timeout. The Golden Rams halted the run out of the timeout, but the Warriors maintained a 21-16 lead late in the fourth set, prompting a second WCU timeout. West Chester used kills from Haines and Gallagher, along with an ace by Haines, to cut the ESU lead to 22-19, which also forced the Warriors to take their first timeout of the set. East Stroudsburg denied the West Chester comeback with a 25-21 fourth set victory, forcing a fifth set in Hollinger for just the second time this season.
East Stroudsburg got out to a 5-2 lead to start the fifth set, which led to an early Golden Ram timeout. The Warriors continued their strong fifth-set effort, taking a 10-3 lead before extending their advantage to 12-5. West Chester battled back late but fell to East Stroudsburg by a 15-8 final as the Warriors erased a two-one deficit to improve to 11-2 on the year in league play.
Anna Coulter and Allison Birtcil tied for the match lead in kills with 22 each, while Kyra Bishop logged a team-high 53 assists. Marta Leeland, who was a fixture on long service runs throughout the match for ESU, posted a match-best six aces and 22 digs as she helped her team sweep the season series from the Golden Rams.
Kiwtchoff and Gallagher finished with 14 and 12 kills as the second and third Golden Rams with double figures in kills. Brown led all players in assists with 57, along with two aces, as she, along with Haines and
Elianna Freeman (Houston, Texas/Jersey Village), all recorded two aces. Freeman also led West Chester in digs with 19, while Brown added 16 and Lane added 13 of her own in the setback.
West Chester hit .159 (69-36-207) in the loss, including a -.037 (3-4-27) effort in the fifth set, while East Stroudsburg hit .229 (67-24-188), including a .378 effort in the first set and .308 (12-4-26) in the fourth to force a fifth set.
Despite the setback, West Chester did punch its ticket back to the PSAC Tournament by virtue of a Lock Haven loss at Shippensburg. Seeding remains to be determined as West Chester will play a pair of important matches against Lock Haven and Bloomsburg next week.
Up Next
West Chester will conclude its regular season next week with a trip to Lock Haven and Bloomsburg on Friday and Saturday evenings.
