SCRANTON, Pa. – The University of Scranton volleyball team (13-7, 8-0 Landmark) rallied from a third set deficit and finished the 3-0 sweep of the Lycoming College Warriors (13-7, 1-5 Landmark) on Friday night at the John Long Center in Scranton.
Scranton 3, Lycoming 0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-21)
Scranton held a 6-4 lead in the early stages of the first set and a kill by sophomore Deanna Whelpley (Congers, N.Y./Immaculate Heart Academy) ignited a seven-point run that resulted in a 13-4 advantage. From there, the Warriors were able to battle back and cut the lead to 17-15 before three consecutive attack errors made it 20-15 in favor of the Royals. Junior Marissa Willix (Bloomfield, N.Y./Bloomfield) capped off the 25-17 victory with a service ace.
The two teams traded points for much of the second set and Lycoming held a 21-18 lead before Scranton took seven of the final nine points in the set. Whelpley registered three kills over the final five points to help the hosts take a two-set lead with the 25-23 win.
In the third set, Lycoming raced out to an 11-5 lead and led by as many as 10 at 17-7 before the Royals put together a furious rally. Trailing 18-12, sophomore Camryn Hoffman (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) led a run of 10 straight points for Scranton with four service aces and a Warriors' attack error made it 22-18. A Lycoming service error closed out the 25-21 win for head coach Jamie Spangler's team.
Whelpley led the attack for the Royals with 16 kills and senior Stephanie Margolies (Westfield, N.J./Westfield) added nine of her own, while freshman Cammi Quirk (Oakland, N.J./Ridgewood) tallied 26 assists in the victory.
Sophomore Maddie Forry (Reading, Pa./Exeter Township) led the way defensively with 30 digs and became the 20th student-athlete in program history to reach the 1,000 career dig milestone. Forry now has 1,024 digs for her career.
Prior to Friday's game, Scranton honored the team's senior class of Margolies, Willix, Ashley Bolan (Schwenksville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) and Grace Kane (Cranford, N.J./Union Catholic).
The Royals will host No. 1 Juniata (1 p.m.) and Stevens (5 p.m.) in a pair of matches on Saturday at the John Long Center.
--ROYALS--
