Lions come up empty in tri-meet with Mont Alto and Lackawanna

Hazleton, Pa. - The Nittany Lions hosted Penn State Mont Alto and Lackawanna College on Saturday, September 14 in a tri-match that featured the Lions second PSUAC contest of the season. Mont Alto and Hazleton locked horns in the day's first event but it was the visitors coming out on top, besting the Lions in five sets. After a lengthy intermission, Hazleton battled Lackawanna College for the second time this season, and once again the Falcons prevailed in five sets over Hazleton, giving the Lions a pair of tough losses on the day. 

Game one: PSU Mont Alto 3, PSU Hazleton 2 - Final

Mont Alto had Hazleton's number early in this one, taking set one handily by the score of 25-18 and building up an eight point cushion late is set two. There the visitors looked to end the frame early, serving with the lead at 24-16, but Hazleton reeled off eight straight points, including three kills from Lindsey Barron to knot the score at 24. Hazleton had a chance to steal the second set with Sydney Mack behind the service line until Mont Alto finally converted a sideout, leading to an attack error by Hazleton to go up 2-0 in the match. Despite the loss in set two, momentum had clearly shifted in Hazleton's favor. Hazleton dominated the third frame, getting 10 kills on their way to a 25-15 win in the third and five kills by Mack in the fourth set helped the Lions even up the match at two sets a piece. The Lions took the first point in the tie-breaker set, but four straight attack errors from Hazleton left the Lions trailing and a six point run by Mont Alto midway through the fifth set proved to be too much to overcome for the Hazleton squad as Mont Alto edged the Lions 15-9 in the fifth, claiming victory in the match three sets to two. 

Mack led Hazleton in the match with 19 kills, with Barron adding seven kills to go along with six kills from Sarah Ballek. Sophia Del Vacchio added six kills respectively while notching 36 assists in the losing effort.

Game two: Lackawanna College 3, PSU Hazleton 2 - Final

Set one saw the Nittany Lions collect nine straight points to snag a 22-13 advantage and take a 1-0 lead over the Falcons but Lackawanna repaid the favor with a convincing 25-18 win in the second. Set three proved to be a crucial period in the match. Both squads were locked in and throughout the frame, no team held a lead larger than three points. Hazleton seemed to have the advantage after a string of Falcon errors gave the Lions a 20-17 lead but Hazleton would be limited to consecutive points on just one more occasion in the set, allowing Lackawanna to get back in contention. After a kill by Sydney Mack tied the game at 25 each, Lackawanna went on to score three of the next four points, taking the pivotal third frame by the score of 28-26 and a 2-1 advantage in the match. 

Hazleton responded nicely in the fourth set of the game. The Lions notched 10 straight points early in the game to claim a 10-2 lead and closed out the fourth early with another 25-15 win, sending the squad to their second tie-breaker set of the day. Once again however, the Lions offense stalled in the fifth, seeing the Falcons go up seven points early. Hazleton responded with four straight kills to tie the score at 12, but the Falcons picked up three of the final four points to escape the building with their second win of the season over the Hazleton team, both games ending in five sets. 

Mack was tremendous in the loss, totaling 26 kills in the match against Lackawanna while adding 17 digs and a pair of service aces. Kaytlin Kelley totaled seven kills, two solo blocks and five block assists while Del Vacchio dished out 50 assists in the match.

Next up: Hazleton returns to PSUAC play, traveling to Penn State Schuylkill on Monday, September 16 for a 6:00 p.m. bout with their local rival.