Julia Crilly	Molly Loftus	Kim Marino

SELINSGROVE, Pa.—The University of Scranton volleyball team got off to a rocky start and never recovered, dropping a 3-0 decision to Susquehanna University in the semifinals of the Landmark Conference tournament Tuesday evening at Houts Gymnasium.

The Royals had a negative hitting percentage in losing the first set, 25-10, and hit just .135 and .029 in dropping the second and third sets, 25-14 and 25-18, respectively.  With the loss, Scranton ends its season with a 23-11 record while Susquehanna improves to 30-8 and moves into Saturday’s championship match against 7-time defending champion Juniata College, which downed Moravian, 3-0, in the other semifinal.

Senior Julia Crilly (Rochester, NY/Aquinas Institute) put the wraps on an outstanding career tonight, finishing with eight kills to bring her career total to 1648, three shy of breaking Anne McGovern’s (1996-1999) all-time Royal record of 1650.  She does, however, finish her career as Scranton’s all-time leader in attack attempts (4647) and is third in digs (1572) and fifth in service aces (195).

The Royals also received five kills from junior outside hitter Molly Loftus (Mount Carmel, Pa./Our Lady of Lourdes), seven digs from junior liberoKim Marino (Long Valley, NJ/West Morris Central), and 15 assists and three digs from freshman Morgan Rentzheimer (Laurys Station, Pa./Parkland).

Scranton finishes with 23 wins under second-year head coach Jamie Spangler, the most victories for the program since 2008 and 11 more than last year’s total.

--ROYALS--