LA ROCHE, D'YOUVILLE ADVANCE TO AMCC WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT SEMIFINALS

#3 La Roche College defeated #6 Pitt-Greensburg 3-2 in their first-ever home playoff game and #5 D'Youville College earned the 3-2 upset victory over #4 Franciscan University, to advance to the AMCC Tournament Semifinal on Saturday in Bradford, PA.

La Roche College 3, Pitt-Greensburg 2
Pitt-Greensburg jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the match. They scored ten of the set's final twelve points including three on serving aces and seven on bad Redhawk sets.

La Roche settled down in game two taking it 25-19. The first half of the set belonged to Pitt-Greensburg as they built up a 12-9 lead. Sophomore OH Laura Nath responded with three kills to tie it at 12-12 and the Redhawks continued to feed Nath for the six point game two win.

The third game came down to the wire with the Bobcats squeaking it out 26-24. La Roche held a 23-22 lead but three kills and a service ace put Pitt-Greensburg up 2-1.

The Redhawks fed off the electric home crowd to cruise in game four 25-15. Sophomore S Sarah Storino and freshman S Maddie Gestrich used the entire net as Nath, freshman OH Abby Jacobs and freshman Christine Aland all had multiple kills. A Pitt-Greensburg attack error ended it and sent it to a fifth and deciding set.

Nath took over the fifth set to send the Redhawks to their third straight AMCC Tournament Semifinal.  Seven of La Roche's fifteen points came off Nath kills including the match's final point.

Nath finished with a career-high 28 kills. Jacobs and C. Aland each had 9 kills while freshman Janet Aland had seven kills. Storino and Gestrich combined for 48 assists.

Freshman L Hannah Scott guided the defense with 34 digs. Nath finished with 24 digs and freshman L Emily Cooney had 19.

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D'Youville College 3, Franciscan University 2
The D'Youville women's volleyball team avenged their regular season finale loss to Franciscan on Saturday by defeating the Barons 3-2 in the first round of the AMCC playoffs on Wednesday evening.

D'Youville jumped out to an early lead over Franciscan in the first set with an 8-2 lead. The Barons would come back to close the gap at 12-8, but the Spartans would bring their lead back to six at 16-10. Franciscan would then score 10 of the next 12 points to take the lead at 20-18. They would continue their first set comeback and win the first set 25-22.

The Spartans rebounded in the second set and again got out to an early lead at 10-3. Franciscan closed the gap to one by trailing 12-11 until D'Youville went on a major scoring run. The women scored 13 of the next 14 points and ran away with the second set, winning 25-12.

In the third set, Franciscan this time took control of the game early with a 7-5 lead. The Spartans tied up the game at 9-9 before the Barons went on a run, taking a 20-10 lead. They would then close out the third set by winning by the score of 25-13.

Determined to not let their season end, D'Youville came out to an 8-4 advantage. Franciscan then came back to take the 12-11 lead but the Spartans rallied right back and went up 20-12. However the Barons would put up a fight with 10 of 11 points to retake the lead 22-21. But the Spartans would get the lead back in the next two points and win the set 25-23, forcing a fifth set.

The final set of the match had the Barons take a 4-0 lead right away. The Spartans came back and eventually tied the game at 7-7 and the set was tied again at 9-9. However from that point on, D'Youville took control. They scored six points out of the final seven to win the set 15-10 and the match 3-2, advancing to the AMCC semi-finals on Saturday.

The women had an all-around team effort in the upset victory over Franciscan. Junior S/OPP Abby Booth had an outstanding game with another double-double, leading the team with 27 assists and recording 13 digs. She also added four kills and two service ace. 

Junior OH Kendyll Smith led the team with 12 kills while senior OH/OPP Kaylee Stewart added nine. Also tallying nine kills was junior OH Megan Schneider to go with her 16 digs, second on the team.

Freshman L Jasmine Filkov recorded a team high 19 digs in the match. Sophomore MB Julie Fleming added six kills while senior MB Megan McCarthy led the team with four service aces.