BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College women's volleyball team rallied back after dropping the opening set to defeat non-conference opponent Widener University by a final score of 22-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-21 on Senior Night in Johnston Hall Thursday.
After letting an early 11-5 lead slip away in the first set, the Hounds were able to find their rhythm and steal the next three sets from Widener. The Blue and Grey dropped the first two points in the second set before the Hounds won the nine out of the next 10 points behind the serving of freshman setter Rebecca Purcell to take a 10-3 lead over the Pride.
In the third set, both teams went back-and-forth with each taking their own runs to try to win the set, but the Blue and Grey would come out on top with a big kill coming from junior middle blocker Taylor Kornmann to take the set 25-23. In the fourth and final set, the two teams would again take their turns stealing points from one another but the Greyhounds would get the final three points they needed off of kills by sophomore outside hitter Mary Zacher.
Zacher led the team with 20 kills in 63 attempts, the second most in a four-set match in school history, and 17 digs on the night while Kornmann would end the evening with 16 kills, five digs, one assist and one block. Also playing an important role in Thursday night's game was freshman middle blocker Erin Tiger, who tallied 11 kills and hit a .333 hitting percentage.
"It was nice to come out strong and play well," commented Head Coach Shelley Bauder after the match. "I thought it was good because it showed that we could keep a lead and even if we lost the lead we could battle back and come out on top. It was really get to have three kills in double digit kills and Meg did a great job with her sets tonight. It was also really nice to have Jean back to 100% and you could really tell she was by the way she was all over the court all night and ended the night with 29 digs."
Senior setter Megan Szkolnicki led the team with 47 assists, 11 digs, three kills and two service aces while sophomore libero Jean Markovic paced the team with 29 digs, three service aces, and one assist.
Up next for Moravian are two Landmark Conference matches. The first will be versus Goucher College at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 17 at The Catholic University of America. The second match is slated to start at 6:30 p.m. versus Catholic. If the Hounds win both Landmark matches on Saturday, they will clinch the final Landmark Conference playoff spot.
