As Thompson Gymnasium filled with families and friends with signs and flowers for the seniors graduating in the upcoming semesters, the women’s volleyball team was ready to kick off the Landmark Conference matchup between the Elizabethtown Blue Jays and the Wilkes Colonels.
Elizabethtown started strong with two straight kills by senior setter Sophie Savick, getting the home crowd excited for what was to come in the game. The Blue Jays started strong, producing an 8-2 lead in the first set, led by huge kills by first-year outside hitter Lucy Stanek and senior middle blocker Gracie Britten.
They continued their offensive pressure by maintaining a large lead throughout the first set. Senior setter Emma Bitner scored an ace for Etown, pushing the lead to 13-5. This was the 100th career ace for Bitner, a huge milestone for herself and the entire team. Etown’s head coach EJ Smith called a timeout for the announcer to recognize the accomplishment and give the team a chance to celebrate. After the timeout, Wilkes began to put pressure on Elizabethtown with a 7-3 run led by senior middle hitter Sierra Hines with a few kills to her name. Etown held strong to end the first set, winning 25-16 off a kill by freshman middle blocker Ida Fisher to seal the point.
The second set was more even-matched with Etown and Wilkes being stuck within a point of each other throughout the majority of the set. The two teams were deadlocked with the score being even until the very end, with the lead extending toward Wilkes’ favor by only two at a point.
“At the start, we came out a little flat. We lost some of our energy, but then we found it. We made a couple of key adjustments in terms of our defense and really showed up towards the end,” Coach Smith said.
Etown and Wilkes were tied at 25-25 when a kill by Lucy Stanek and solid rally scoring by the Blue Jays gave them the edge and won the hard-fought set.
The third set started strong for Wilkes as they opened the scoring with an 8-4 lead, led by kills from Hines and senior middle hitter Jenna Baron. Etown was able to rally back with a 9-3 run to give them a two-point lead into the Wilkes timeout. Wilkes was able to recompose themselves though, with kills by Hines and Baron. However, the Blue Jay defense held strong with rally points created off of digs by junior libero Lucy Stern and Savick. Eventually, Etown would win the third and final set of the game off a kill by senior outside hitter Savannah Lesley to seal the 3-0 victory for Etown.
“They are a great group of women who come and work hard every day, so it’s easy to make bonds with them because they want to come and they want to compete,” Coach Smith said.
Elizabethtown moves to 10-6 overall and 2-0 in the Landmark Conference while Wilkes drops to 3-10 overall and 0-2 in the Conference.
