In the first round of the AMCC women's volleyball championship tournament, #3 Franciscan University defeated #6 Mt. Aloysius College, 3-0, while #5 La Roche College defeated #4 Penn St. Behrend, 3-0. Franciscan and La Roche will advance to the tournament semifinals, which will be played on Saturday, November 7 at #1 Medaille College, with the championship match to follow on Sunday.
#3 Franciscan 3, #6 Mt. Aloysius 0
After defeating Mt. Aloysius 3-0 in the first round of the AMCC conference tournament, returning champion Franciscan University is looking to claim their second consecutive conference title. Baron senior OH Dani Link hit the 1,000 career kill mark in the first set of Franciscan's straight set win – 25-21, 25-20 and 25-13 – against Mount Aloysius in the first round of the AMCC tournament. Franciscan and Mount Aloysius played just one week ago with the Mounties emerging victorious in four sets and handing the Lady Barons their third conference loss of the season. Determined to put the loss behind them and move forward in the conference tournament, the Lady Barons were not going to let the Mounties get the best of them again. Led by Link's seven kills in the first set alone, the Lady Barons' offense came out came out strong and carried them through all three sets. Franciscan finished with a .248 hitting percentage and only eight hitting errors on the night, tied for a season-low in hitting errors. Link led the team in kills with 12. two setters – Setters junior Mary Moore and freshman Becca Haven helped to create the strong offensive night. Moore finished with 15 assists while Haven became the second-leading setter in program history with her 13 assists.
Franciscan will travel to Buffalo, NY, for its AMCC semifinal match against #2 Penn State Altoona at host Medaille College on Saturday, November 7, at 4:30 p.m.
#5 La Roche 3, #4 Penn St. Behrend 0
La Roche is moving on to the AMCC tournament semifinals for the second consecutive season after sweeping 3-time AMCC Champion Penn State Behrend for the first time in school history. The Lady Redhawks surprised Behrend by coming back to win the first set 26-24. La Roche had not led in the game until their twenty-first point and they had to score the set's final three points to win. Unlike the first set, La Roche nearly took the second one wire to wire. They did not relinquish the lead after they grabbed a 10-9 lead and went on to win it 25-19. The Lady Redhawks took the momentum and came up huge with a spot in the AMCC semifinals on the line in set three. La Roche held a 22-19 advantage before Behrend scored four unanswered points to go up one. The Lions had the Lady Redhawks at set point but freshman MH Kayla Bulat and freshman OH Laura Nath kills sent La Roche on with the 26-24 win.Nath finished with a team-high 10 kills while freshman OH Toni Torchia and junior OH Kayla Lurry had nine each. Senior DS Kelly Slates (20) and Torchia (18) paced La Roche in the dig department and Lurry had 3 blocks. Freshman DS Sarah Storino and senior S Vicky Danko combined to assist on 42 of 45 kills.
The Lady Redhawks will travel to #1 Medaille on Saturday for their semifinal match. Gametime is 2:00 p.m.