WILLIAMSPORT, PA (November 2, 2019) -- In their final matches of the season, the King's College women's volleyball team split their road trimatch, falling to Penn State Abington in the opening match, 3-0, and defeating the host Penn College, 3-1. The Monarchs improve to 21-8 for the season, finishing their 2019 campaign with a win to snap their five-match losing streak.

vs. Penn State Abington:

The opening match for the Monarchs was a battle through all three sets. The Monarchs started strong, beginning the first set with the lead, 14-9, before the Nittany Lions used a 5-1 run to inch within one, 15-14. King's responded with three straight kills by sophomore Olivia Bunch on a 6-2 run, giving the Monarchs the lead, 21-16. PSU Abington responded with their own 6-1 run to tie the set, 22-22, and used that momentum to score six of the last eight set points to take set one, 26-24, over King's.

PSU Abington opened set two on an 8-1 run, but King's battled back with a 9-2 run to tie the match, 10-10, led by sophomore Grace Frati with two kills and two service aces. The two teams would continue to trade points before the Nittany Lions scored four straight to increase their lead, 17-14. More back-and-forth action from both teams saw the Monarchs tie the match twice, once at 22-22 and again at 24-24, but the Nittany Lions ended set two on a kill and a service ace to end the set, 26-24.

The final set of the match started with the same energy and intensity as the first two with both teams battling for each point, as the score was tied, 11-11. The Nittany Lions used a seven-point run to build a lead that the Monarchs would not be able to overcome as they fell in the final set, 25-19, and the match, 3-0.

Frati led the offense for the Monarchs with seven kills and added 13 digs and two service aces. Three Monarchs totaled five digs each to round out the top Monarchs, including Bunch and fellow sophomores Danielle Kitchner and Meg O'Brien. Freshman Caitlyn Pepper performed extremely well, recording the first double-double of her career after dishing out 21 assists and recording a career-high 11 digs, and sophomore Wiatt Hoffmann dished out 11 assists. Sophomore Taylor Mueller anchored the defense totaling a match-high 22 digs. In addition, sophomores Cleo Schultz and Becca Goldberg led the team in total blocks with two each.

As a team, the Monarchs totaled 38 kills off 36 assists, hitting .120 for the match. They held the advantage in blocks (4-2) and digs (75-69) over the Nittany Lions.

vs. Penn College:

In the second match of the day, the Monarchs came out to an early 5-2 lead behind two Schultz kills. Penn used a 6-3 run of their own to tie the match, 8-8. Over the next few points, there were four ties and three lead changes that say the Wildcats lead, 18-17, before they ended the first set on a 7-1 run to top the Monarchs, 25-18. King's would then respond, winning the next three sets to take the match, 3-1. The second set saw the Monarchs jump to a commanding 15-2 lead that would allow them to crusie to take set two, 25-7. Seven different Monarchs were able to record at least one point in that set for King's.

Set three saw the Wildcats lead early, 3-0, but the Monarchs answered with a 17-3 run to take the lead, 17-6. Another Penn run allowed the Wildcats to inch within five, 20-15, before kills by sophomore Christie Brown and freshman Marta Pawka, a service ace by Mueller, and two Penn errors allowed King's to take the set, 25-18. The Monarchs stormed out to a strong 24-5  lead in the final set of the day. The Wildcats would then score four unanswered points before a kill by O'Brien put an end to the Penn comeback effort and end the set, 25-9, and give the Monarchs the match, 3-1.

Goldberg and Brown led the offensive attack, totaling nine kills each, with Goldberg hitting .381 for the match and Brown hitting .154. Hoffmann dished out a match-high 25 assists in the win for the Monarchs. For the second time today, Mueller recorded a match-high dig total with 28 digs while adding four assists. Sophomore Karissa Hartzell also tallied double-digit digs with 14, and Hartzell and Mueller totaled a match-high four service aces a piece. At the net, sophomore Sarah Hayward recorded a match-high two blocks.

As a team, the Monarchs held the advantage in every statistical category, including kills (40-26), aces (14-5), blocks (4-1), assists (36-24), and digs (73-63). They also hit .105 for the match compared to the Wildcats' .000.