BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Allegheny College volleyball team completed its regular season with a split of two matches at the Buffalo State Bengal Challenge this afternoon.
Allegheny (17-11, 2-6 NCAC) began the day with a four-set loss to St. Lawrence (17-17, 7-5 Liberty League), but rebounded to win a five-set match against Buffalo State (12-18, 2-7 SUNYAC) to close the invitational. The Gators were victorious in the first set versus the Saints, but dropped the following three (25-22, 22-25, 25-27, 21-25). Allegheny came away with a victory against the host Bengals despite falling behind 1-0 and 2-1 in the match (19-25, 25-16, 16-25, 25-20, 15-11).
Freshman middle hitter
Bree Blair led the Gators with 14 kills against St. Lawrence. Blair hit .321 for the match and added four blocks (one solo, three assist) defensively. Her fellow middle
Leah Franzluebbers also collected four blocks – all assisted – and tallied eight kills on 22 swings with four errors.
Sophomore setter
Justine Kelly posted her seventh and eighth double-doubles of the season this afternoon. Against the Saints, Kelly dished out 45 assists and collected 12 digs.
Franzluebbers enjoyed the best game of her career against Buffalo State, tallying a career-high 17 kills on a hitting percentage of .516. The sophomore and Blair dominated at the net defensively as they collected eight (five solo, three assist) and seven (three solo, four assist) blocks, respectively.
Senior outside hitter
Taylor Samuel registered her 13th double-double of the year and her first since Oct. 10 with 10 kills and 18 digs. Junior outside hitter
Bailey Gawley added nine kills in four sets.
Kelly's second double-double of the day came courtesy of 43 assists and a season-high 18 digs. She also connected on seven swings from the front line.
Sophomore libero
Terra Schall dug out a career-high 43 attacks against the Bengals after a 31-dig effort to begin the day. Schall now owns a dig total of 691 this season and moved up to second place in single-season program history. She is now 32 digs shy of the program record set by Adriana Pennekamp in 2005.
Sophomore defensive specalist
Kylee Karczewski collected 22 digs in the victory over Buffalo State.
Allegheny begins the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament next Friday, Nov. 6 when it takes on top-seeded Wittenberg.
