PITTSBURGH, PA -- The La Roche women's volleyball team climbed into first place in the AMCC Conference after sweeping Penn State Altoona 3-0 (25-13, 25-20, 25-19) on Wednesday. The Lady Redhawks improve to a perfect 3-0 in the AMCC and are the last undefeated team in the conference. It was also their first-ever win against Penn State Altoona.
Penn State Altoona opened with three straight points but two errors and two straight blocks by Hailey Ebersole and Christine Aland gave the Redhawks a 4-3 lead. The Lions recovered to tie it at 7-7 but Penn State Altoona never led after that. Six of the Redhawks next eight points came off Lion hitting errors and Altoona's coach was forced to burn a timeout at 15-10. La Roche Coach Nicole Bajuszik drew up a quality gameplan and the Redhawks closed the set on a 10-3 run. Laura Nath provided 6 kills in the first set.
The Lions ran out to a 9-5 lead forcing the Redhawks to call a timeout. Penn State Altoona built their lead to six but a Janet Aland block, Toni Torchia kill and Nath kill got them back within three. The Lions called a timeout and La Roche came out on a mission. A Nath kill tied it and Ebersole and Christine Aland combined on a block to take the lead. The Redhawks scored seven unanswered points for a 21-15 lead. Penn State Altoona made a late run but the Redhawks held on for the set two victory. Nath had 8 kills in the second set.
Nath could not be stopped in the third set as the Redhawks ran out to a 10-2 lead. Penn State Altoona responded and cut the deficit to three but Torchia ended the run with a kill. The Lions hung close but were never able to grab the lead as Torchia slammed it down to end it.
The Lady Redhawks scored 46 points off of kills and finished with a .319 attack percentage. They assisted on 43 of 46 kills including 21 from Sarah Storino and 20 from Maddie Gestrich.
Nath was incredible finishing with a game-high 22 kills in just three sets. Torchia finished with 3 serving aces and 14 digs. Hannah Scott registered 15 digs and Christine Aland 3 blocks.
The Redhawks will welcome Penn State Behrend and D'Youville College to campus on Saturday.
Photo credit to Ryan George.