LATROBE, Pa. (April 13) -- In the semifinals of the 2024 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Championship Tournament, top-seeded Saint Vincent outlasted fifth-seeded Penn State-Behrend, 3-2, to earn its first-ever trip to the conference title match.
In the back-and-forth match, the Bearcats prevailed by set scores of 27-25, 20-25, 25-23, 19-25, and 15-9.
Saint Vincent improves to 19-7 overall and will now face the winner of Friday's second semifinal match between Hiram and Thiel at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 13.
Three players registered 10 or more kills for Saint Vincent, with
Shawn McSwiggen putting down 21,
Zebadiah Wyant 18 and
Matthew Minkin 15. All three recorded double-doubles in the win, with McSwiggen picking up 15 digs, Minkin 11 and Wyant 10.
Zach Wyant ran the offense, dishing out 49 assists, while also tallying 12 digs and three blocks.
Rocco Marino paced Saint Vincent with four blocks, while McSwiggen led the Bearcats with two service aces.
Penn State-Behrend was led statistically by the duo of Kyle Hoffman and Daniel Easly, as Hoffman recorded 20 kills and Easly 18. Joshua Elegeer had a team-best 17 digs for the Lions (12-16), while Lewis Rhodes led both sides with seven blocks.
In the opening set, an early 3-0 run, capped off with a Zebadiah Wyant kill, staked SVC to an early 5-3 lead, and the Bearcat advantage hovered between one and two points over the next dozen serves. Midway through the set, Behrend put together a 4-0 run to take its first multi-point lead of the day, 11-9, before SVC bounced right back to force ties of 11-11 and 13-13. The Lions countered with a 4-1 run to take a 17-14 lead, and they would continue to maintain a spread of at least two points over the next several rallies, before rattling three unanswered points to open up a 24-20. Following a Saint Vincent time out, the Bearcats roared back, continually staving off set point. Minkin's kill pulled SVC to 24-21, before McSwiggen served back-to-back aces to cut the deficit to 24-23. The Bearcats tied the set at 24 on a Berhend attack error, and then a Marino kill capped off the late 5-0 run and gave the Bearcats a 25-24 lead. Hoffman kept the Lions alive with a kill to tie the set at 25, but Marino and McSwiggen put down kills on back-to-back serves to win the set, 27-25, and give the Bearcats a 1-0 lead.
Behrend scored the first two points of the second set, and would not trail for the duration. The Bearcats would force four ties, with kills from Zebadiah Wyant making the score both 2-2 and 3-3, and a Zach Wyant block tying the set at 14-14. The Lions would take charge late, using a 5-2 run to open up a 20-15 lead. The two teams then traded point for point down the stretch, but the five-point margin was too much for SVC to overcome, as the Lions tied that match with the 25-20 set win.
The Lions looked to keep the momentum in the third set, opening up leads of 4-1, 8-5, and 10-7. The Bearcats promptly drew even, tying the set at 10-10 after two kills from McSwiggen and one from Zebadiah Wyant. The Lions would score the next point to take the one-point lead, but the Bearcats rattled off six unanswered, with two kills apiece from McSwiggen and Zebadiah Wyant and a Mumpower ace, to open up what seemed to be a commanding 16-11 lead. The lead would turn out to be short-lived, as Behrend answered with its own 6-0 run to tie the set at 16-16. The Lions then committed errors on back-to-back rallies to put the Bearcats back in front, 18-16, and the hosts maintained the two-point margin for the remainder of the set, as the teams would close by exchanging points over the final 14 rallies, with McSwiggen closing out the 25-23 set win with a kill to put the Bearcats in front, 2-1.
Saint Vincent jumped out to an early 4-3 lead in the third set, with two kills from Zebadiah Wyant and one apiece from McSwiggen and Zach Wyant, but Behrend responded with a long 8-1 run to take an 11-5 lead. SVC trimmed the deficit to three on four occasions, the last being at 21-18, but the Lions scored four of the final five points to take the set 25-19 and force a decisive fifth set.
The opening eight serves of the final set resulted in four ties and four lead changes en route to the early 4-4 tie. A Behrend service error put the Bearcats in front 5-4, before Marion recorded solo blocks on back-to-back attacks to push the SVC margin to 7-4. After an Easly kill pulled the visitors to within 7-5, Marino's third block of the set
The opening stages of the final set saw four ties and four lead changes en route an a 4-4 tie. A Behrend service error put the Bearcats in front 5-4, before three of the Lions' next four attacks resulted in Marino solo blocks to up the SVC margin to 8-5. A kill by Behrend's Easly temporarily halted the SVC run and again shrank the margin to two points, but the Bearcats would then take charge with another decisive run to seal the match. A kill from McSwiggen upped the SVC lead to 10-6, before two Lion errors and solo blocks by Minkin and Zebadiah Wyant put the Bearcats in front 14-7. Behrend scored the next two points to extend the match, but Zebadiah Wyant's closed out the victory with his 18th kill of the night to punch SVC's ticket to the AMCC title match.
The victory gave the Bearcats the season sweep over the Lions, while it avenged SVC's 3-0 loss to Behrend in last year's AMCC semifinals.
Saint Vincent will now play for the AMCC title at 3 p.m. on Saturday in the Carey Center against the winner of Friday's second semifinal match between second-seeded Hiram and third-seeded Thiel.
