MEADVILLE, Pa.—The Allegheny College volleyball team opened up the home portion of their 2018 schedule with day one of the Gator Invitational Friday (Sept. 7).
The Gators were victorious in four sets over D'Youville to start the night, but fell to Westminster 3-0 in their second match of the evening.
Allegheny 3, D'Youville 1 (22-25, 25-18, 25-20, 25-17)
The Spartans (0-5) won a very competitive opening set 25-22. They had 11 kills and hit .250 for the set with only two errors. The Gators (3-4) matched their 11 kills, but were hampered by eight errors.
The Gators bounced back in the second set with a 25-18 win. Allegheny boasted their top offensive performance of the night in the set, tallying 16 kills and hitting at a .375 clip while only committing a match-low four errors.
In the third set, the Gators took advantage of 10 Spartan errors as they captured a 25-20 win. The Gators had 12 kills in the set as they pulled ahead 2-1.
In the final set, the Gators rode 15 kills enroute to a 25-17 win to wrap up the match. The Gators also took advantage of seven D'Youville errors.
For the match,
Grace Lengauer led the Gators with 13 kills, 18 digs and four aces.
Meghan Uht and
Tamara Babic had nine kills apiece. Babic had the top hitting percentage for the Gators with a mark of .467.
Jyl Russotti and
Alysha Crowther had seven kills apiece while
Rebecca MacQuarrie and
Elizabeth Debich combined for nine.
Defensively, libero
Rachel Slotterback led the Gators with 24 digs in addition to a pair of aces.
Eden Merkle was also in double digits with a career-high 16 digs.
The Spartans were led by Alexandria McBride's nine kills and 19 digs.
Westminster 3, Allegheny 0 (25-8, 25-19, 25-15)
In the second match of the night, the Gators fell to the Titans in straight sets.
In the opening set, the Titans hit 12 kills and took advantage of seven Gator errors as they won 25-8. For the set, Westminster hit .312.
The Gators stuck with the Titans throughout the second set but a late run lifted Westminster to a 25-19 win. Allegheny had their best offensive output of the match with nine kills. However, Westminster produced 15 kills to jump ahead 2-0.
The Titans gained an early advantage in the third set as they rode the momentum to a 25-15 win to close the match. The Titans hit 14 kills in the set while the Gators tallied eight.
Once again, Lengauer led the Gators offensively with 10 kills, a while adding six digs. MacQuarrie tallied six kills.
Defensively, Slotterback once again led the Gators with 13 digs.
Allegheny is back in action in Meadville Saturday (Sept. 8) as they play Marietta and Mount Union to close out the Gator Invite.
