The Elizabethtown College women’s volleyball team finished up their fall 2014 season with two great games against Lycoming College and Wilkes University at 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 1.
Starting their home game against Lycoming were junior Megan McNaul, senior Kelci Scannapieco, senior Samantha Hicks, senior Taylor Beck, first-year Brittianni Phillips, senior Jen Cook and junior Steph High. The Blue Jays held the lead throughout the first set and played a close game throughout the second set. Tied at 25-25, a kill by Scannapieco and a service ace by Cook won the team their second set. The third and fourth sets were close, with end scores of 25-21 and 27-25 in Lycoming’s favor, and set the teams up for a fifth and final set.
After Lycoming took the lead for the beginning of the fifth set, an attack error by the other team, as a result of a block from Scannapieco and Beck tied the Jays at 13-13. The rest of the game was a close point-for-point tie between the two teams, putting both the players and the viewers on edge. The Jays came out on top, however, after kills by Hicks and Beck, winning the game for Etown.
“This year our Blue Jays have been more successful than our win-loss results would indicate. We are playing much better volleyball now than we were capable of playing at the outset,” Kreider said. “We really are playing some high-level volleyball.”
At their other home game on Saturday against Wilkes, the team only continued to make their coaches — and their fans — very proud. In the first set, they held the lead until the opposing team had a kill, but took the lead again after a service error from the opposing team. They held the lead for the rest of the set and won 18-25. The Blue Jays crushed the opposing team in the second set with a score of 14-25, after junior and Etownian Assistant Sports Editor Karley Ice scored a kill for the team’s 25th point. Scannapieco scored the first point for Etown in the third set with a kill, and the team won the match after an attack error from the opposing team, with a final set score of 20-25.
Over the course of the season, the women’s volleyball team won 13 of their 32 games. One of the highlights of the season was their trip to Florida over fall break. Kreider said, “My personal highlight was our match against Pasco Herndando in New Port Richey, Florida. Florida itself is always fun, but to see our Blue Jays fight point-for-point with one of the top NJCAA Division II teams in the country made all the coaches proud,” he said. “Returning to a highly competitive track for our fall break matches is important for us as a program. I am pleased to see that we made strides toward that this year.”
Phillips also spoke about the Florida trip. “It was so much fun. We actually lost both of our games down there, but that’s where we found our spark. You win some, you lose some. And of course we didn’t want to lose some that we lost,” she said. “It was a pretty decent season, despite all of the losses we had. We’ve had our bumps and bruises, but I think we did pretty well. I really do.”
Kreider also said, “Coaching at Elizabethtown continues to be one of the more rewarding things I do. Being able to contribute in some way to the success of our players on and off the court has always been an extremely meaningful part of my contribution to our institution.”
The women’s volleyball team, as well as their supporters, look forward to another successful season next year.
