Brittany Cafiero	Danielle Cafiero	Julia Crilly
Stephanie Klug	Katherine Flanagan	Morgan Rentzheimer

Box (Scranton-Stockton)
Box (Scranton-Widener)

ASTON, Pa.—Senior outside hitter Julia Crilly (Rochester, NY/Aquinas Institute) made sure The University of Scranton women’s volleyball team’s night ended better than it started.

Crilly finished with 18 kills and 21 digs to lead the Royals to a 3-2 victory over Widener University, which eased the sting of Scranton’s opening round 3-0 loss to Richard Stockton.  

Junior middle hitter Stephanie Klug (Mountaintop, Pa./Crestwood) finished with 12 kills and sophomore setterBrittany Cafiero (Merrick, NY/Kellenberg Memorial) contributed a season-high 46 assists and 12 digs for the Royals, who overcame a 2-1 deficit in sets to pull out a 25-14 win in the fourth set and a 15-9 victory in the fifth to improve to 9-2 on the season, just three wins shy of tying last year’s entire win output.

Offensively, the Royals hit 52 percent in the fourth set and 26.3 percent in the fifth.

Sophomore libero Danielle Cafiero (Merrick, NY/Kellenberg Memorial) played a key role on defense, finishing with a season-high 21 digs, and senior Lizzy Zimmermann (Livingston, NJ/Livingston) contributed on both ends of the court with eight kills, three service aces, and 16 digs.  Junior Katherine Flanagan (Hatboro, Pa./Archbishop Wood) came off the bench and provided a big spark with a team-high five service aces.

The Royals started off strong against Richard Stockton, losing the first set by only four points, 25-21, but struggled after that, hitting a combined .088 over the final two sets.  Crilly led the way with 11 kills and 11 digs and freshman Morgan Rentzheimer (Laurys Station, Pa./Parkland) finished with a team-high 13 digs.

Crilly enters tomorrow’s matches against Neumann (11 am) and Haverford (1 pm) needing only 36 kills to become the fourth player in Royals history to record 1400 in a career.

--ROYALS--