ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- The Moravian College women's volleyball team opened its 2014 Landmark Conference season by defeating conference newcomer Elizabethtown College 25-23, 22-25, 25-21, 25-19 on the road Tuesday evening.
The Greyhounds, who improve to 9-9 overall on the year, took an early lead in the opening set but would find themselves training by four points, 21-17 lead in the match. Moravian answered by scoring eight of the final 10 points in the match including the last four with junior outside hitter Lauren Hostetler serving.
The Hounds jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the second set, and the squad led 18-14 before the Blue Jays staged a rally by taking 11 of the final 15 points in the set. Once again, Moravian had an early lead in the third set but would trail 15-13 and 20-19 before the Greyhounds scored six of the final seven points, the last three with Hostetler on the serve once again.
Moravian would make no doubt of it in the fourth set after Elizabethtown scored the first point. The Blue Jays would trail, 4-3, before four straight points with junior defensive specialist Andrea Giardina behind the service line. The Greyhounds continued to pull away and eventually had a nine-point advantage, 19-10, before sealing the victory, Moravian's second straight Landmark Conference opening win.
Sophomore middle blocker Taylor Kornmann led the Greyhounds with 16 kills while freshman outside hitter Mary Zacher contributed 10 kills and eight digs. Hostetler had eight kills and 12 digs for the Hounds while junior middle blocker Victoria Bobyak added six kills, seven digs and three blocks.
Junior setter Megan Szkolnicki led the offense with 32 assists to go with nine digs, two kills and a pair of service aces while freshman libero Jean Markovic turned in a team high 18 digs along with three assists. Giardina had six digs in the match while sophomore middle blocker Jackie Finnegan contributed three blocks.
Moravian will return to action on Thursday, September 25 when the Greyhounds host Penn State-Brandywine in Johnston Hall for a non-conference match starting at 7:00 p.m. The contest had originally been scheduled on the road back on September 17 but was switched to Moravian.
