WILKES-BARRE, PA (September 12, 2018) – Senior outside hitter Rachel Miller had her best match as a Monarch on Wednesday evening, chalking up a career-high 28 terminations while also earning her 1,000^th career kill. Unfortunately, the visiting Devils of FDU-Florham were able to rally from two sets down to spoil the evening in a 3-2 loss for the King's College women's volleyball team. FDU earned the MAC Freedom win with scores of 22-25, 23-25, 25-17, 25-20 and 15-12.

The milestone kill came midway through the second set for the Monarchs and Miller, as she converted a free ball off a set from freshman setter Wiatt Hoffman. This came after Miller hammered down nine terminations in the opening period, a stanza that saw the Monarchs fend off two late rally attempts to capture the first game thanks to a kill from newcomer Becca Goldberg.

In the second, FDU (3-7, 1-0 MAC Freedom) led for much of the opening part of the set, but King's evened the game at 11 after two kills from Miller, the second one being the milestone 1,000^th of her career. King's took the lead on the next serve thanks to an ace from Hoffmann and held it until the Devils regained an 18-17 lead after a Nathalia Padron kill.
 

WVB | In case you missed it, here was the 1000th kill in video form from Rachel Miller. Miller finished the match with a career-high 28 kills, which is also the second-most kills in a match ever. So proud of you Rachel!! #MonarchNation🦁 @KCVBMonarchs pic.twitter.com/Jar00ak3Hb

— King's College Monarchs (@KingsMonarchs) September 13, 2018

The set remained tight, with King's trailing 23-21 after a block by the Devils, but KC hunkered down and rattled off four consecutive points to take the set. The Monarchs started the run with a kill from southpaw Becca Goldberg, who also clinched the set with her second game-sealing finish of the match.

The third set saw the FDU-Florham offensive unit come to life, erring just twice while hitting .333 to get back into the contest. The Devils evened the match in the fourth set after forcing the host Monarchs into 10 hitting errors, sending the festivities to a fifth set.

In the final set, King's earned three of the first four points and led until 6-5 when Florham tallied five straight points to make the score 10-6. The hosts wouldn't go away, stringing together four points of their own, capped by a Miller kill to give the Monarchs another lead at 12-11. The experienced Devil squad took over from there, earning the final four points to clinch the match victory.

The match saw King's play seven freshmen for much of the match, with Wednesday evening's five-setter the first in their collegiate career. The evening finished with a massive double-double for Miller, who chalked up her career-best 28 kills on 80 swings, adding 19 digs, two blocks and an ace. The 28 kills were the second-most kills in a five-set match at King's, bested by the 31 by Michelle Simcoe against Buffalo State October 9, 1993.

Miller also now sits just 37 digs away from 1,000 for her career, which would make her only the fourth Monarch in school history to accomplish the 1,000 kill, 1,000 dig feat. As it is, Miller became the seventh player at King's to clear the 1,000-kill plateau and the first since 2009. She is now sixth on the all-time list, passing Aimee Coleman '02 and her 1,002 kills Wednesday.

Miller wasn't the only player that had a historic match, as freshman libero Taylor Mueller posted the third-most digs in a five-set match in school history with a career-high 35 Wednesday. It was the most for a King's player since Jillian Foster totaled 36 against Wesley on September 1, 2012.

In all, King's had five players with double-digit digs, as freshman Toni Galasso posted a career-high 16 as well. Fellow newcomer Grace Frati tallied 15 digs, and Hoffmann had her best contest as a Monarch with 55 assists and 15 digs. Freshman Danielle Kitchner registered six kills, and Galante finished with six terminations and three total blocks including two solo rejections. Freshman Christie Brown also came off the bench to total five kills for the Monarchs, who hit .112 (63-39-214) for the match.

FDU-Florham was led by Lauren Harris, who finished with 25 kills and 25 digs, while Padron added 10 kills, four aces and 29 digs. Setter Kacie Ros dished out 48 assists in addition to her 11 digs while Marissa Lehnert chalked up 11 kills and four assisted blocks.

King's (6-1, 0-1 Freedom) will now look forward to this weekend's Hartwick Invitational, battling the host Hawks in addition to SUNY Poly Friday evening. The Monarchs will then come back Saturday morning and take on Hilbert College and Oneonta in the final two matches of the weekend.