Friday, the women’s volleyball team experienced a roller coaster day with their doubleheader versus Rowan University and Gettysburg College resulting in one win and a loss. The Blue Jays upped their winning streak to four matches with a 3-1 victory over Rowan. Middle hitter and senior captain, Kelci Scannapieco, reached double digits for the fifth and sixth consecutive matches, with 17 kills in the first match, a win against Rowan and a career high 19 versus the Gettysburg Bullets.
In the victory over Rowan, the Blue Jays set the tone with high level of energy, finishing with a 25-23 win in the first set and a 25-19 victory in the second set of the match. Scannapieco, junior Megan McNaul and first-year Brittianni Phillips all combined for 35 kills and were a huge threat to the Profs.
“Rowan was scrappy, but we found ways to get the ball down for kills. Kelci Scannapieco was unstoppable up front,” said junior Steph High.
The Blue Jays had a bit of a breakdown in the third set with a 25-13 loss, having ten attacking errors against the Profs. The girls didn’t let this breakdown stop them as they came into the fourth set with a rumble, with Scannapieco and High leading the force.
“We put our heads together and recovered before heading back out onto the court for the fourth set. Our passing really picked up, and we put every piece of the game together to finish the match in the fourth set,” Scannapieco said.
Scannapieco had five kills and High came in clutch with her 12 assists. High had a double-double against the Profs with 42 assists and 10 digs. Junior Shannon Deck delivered a pair of aces and had 13 digs. McNaul finished with 16 digs.
The Blue Jays were feeling good after their win against Rowan and came into the Gettysburg match feeling hopeful, having defeated them Wednesday in a previous match. They lost the first set 25-15 and the second 25-21, but the team managed to pick themselves up and come back with a burst of energy from the two first losses.
“What I thought was really great about the Gettysburg game is that even though we played pretty flat the first two sets, we came back and really rallied to take the match to five games,” said Scannapieco.
Scannapieco established a new career high with 21 kills against Gettysburg. First-year Allie Traynor also came up with a career-best 16 kills in the loss and was of great help to the Jays climbing back into the match after losing the first two sets. Of Traynor’s 16 kills, 10 came in the third, fourth and fifth sets.
In the third set, the Blue Jays scored the first six points. Five of those points came while senior Taylor Beck served the ball.
“Taylor Beck had a great game against the Bullets. She was one of our main weapons on defense, which helped the attackers put down some balls,” Scannapieco said.
The Jays were on fire, up 10-3 before two bursts of fire from the Bullets ended the set. The second of those spurts was a 5-0 run.
Scannapieco broke the tie of 25 with a kill and combined with Steph High for a set-clinching block. Senior Samantha Hicks had a strong set with three kills.
Traynor’s best set came in the fourth when she went for five kills and had a .308 hitting percentage. The Jays led most of the set and closed it out 25-23 on a kill from Beck. First-year Emily Sexton provided her second ace of the match in the set.
The Jays were in the lead for most of the fifth set when Hicks had a block and pushed the lead to 12-8, but Gettysburg stormed back to within a point before Scannapieco’s 21st kill of the night made it 14-12, Etown. Two of Gettysburg’s 16 blocks of the night followed to tie the set at 14. The Bullets were able to put together back-to-back kills to finish off the match. Scannapieco hit .216 on 51 attempts with four blocks thrown in. Traynor had a match-high 56 attempts and recorded a double-double with 13 digs. She also assisted on three blocks.
High topped 40 assists for the third match in a row and fourth time in the last five, as she finished with 46. Deck led the way defensively with 27 digs. Etown had 10 aces in the match, with two each from junior and Etownian Assistant Sports Editor Karley Ice, sophomore Brynne Kirsch, senior Jen Cook and Sexton.
“It is tough to beat a team twice, especially playing them nearly back-to-back. We could have thrown in the towel after they beat us in sets one and two, but we gritted it out and won sets three and four as a team, which isn’t an easy feat against a solid team,” High said.
