PITTSBURGH, PA (October 15, 2022): The King's College Monarchs women's volleyball team saw mixed results in Saturday's tri-match at La Roche University. First they swept the Hilbert College Hawks in dominating fashion 3-0. This win extended the Monarchs non-conference winning streak to 14 games and 19 sets. However, they fell in the second tri-match game 3-0 to the La Roche Redhawks, which ended those streaks. The win clinched the Monarchs a winning record, the 20th straight for head coach Bernie Kachinko. With this tri-match split, the Monarchs are now 15-7 on the season. La Roche improves to an even 10-10 with the tri-match sweep.  Hilbert falls to 4-16 overall with the two losses on the day.

vs. Hilbert College W (3-0 - 25-14, 25-10, 25-9):
In the opening set, Bella Salvia had a couple of early kills and Morgan Williams an early service ace to give the Monarchs a 12-5 lead. In their next big run in the set, the team scored six straight points. This gave them a commanding 21-10 lead. Kathy Shepherd capped off the set with her third kill on the day as the Monarchs took the opener 25-14.

From then on, the Monarchs only trailed one other time the entire matchup. Seven different Monarchs had kills in the following set including Shepherd, Salvia, Kayla Sondberg, Joy Kindall, Carly Shire, Emma Monson and Mia Campanile. Adriana Conforti, Morgan Bryant, Williams, Shire and Salvia each had at least one service ace in the set which the Monarchs took 25-10. 

Looking to close things out fast in the third set King's got out to an early 17-2 lead. Sondberg capped things off in the final set with a kill to give the Monarchs a 25-9 win and sweep of Hilbert. 

The Monarchs were the better team in every statistical category of that match, hitting .329 with 34 kills, 12 aces, 30 assists and 45 digs. Five of the service aces were from Bryant, two from Williams and two from Salvia. Kindall led the attack with 10 kills followed by Sondberg and Shepherd with seven. Shire totaled 21 assists in the matchup and Keely Hoban five. Conforti led the defense this time with 12 digs followed by Williams with 10 and Shire with five. 

First year Michaela Rice led the Hawks with six kills followed by junior Ashley Page and sophomore Katie Kociszewski with two. Kociszewski, Rice and first year Angelita Ledesma all had a service ace. First year Jaden Helbig had a team-high seven assists while first year Jenna Revak had seven digs. 

vs. La Roche University L (0-3 - 21-25, 17-25, 14-25):
The Monarchs kept a great pace with the Redhawks in the opening set which saw 10 ties and five lead changes. The team recorded 11 kills in the set, their highest on the day against La Roche. King's went on a 6-2 run to tie the score at 13. A kill by Shire put them up 16-15. The Redhawks however responded with a 7-2 stretch and took the opening set 25-21. 

Following a close first set, the Monarchs found themselves in an 11-5 hole. They were able to climb back into things thanks to a pair of kills by Shepherd and a service ace by Devan Moses. In the end, the Redhawks maintained their lead to take the second set 25-17.

The teams traded early streaks in the third set. The Monarchs took a 6-5 lead but the Redhawks responded with a 5-1 stretch. The opposition led for the remainder of the way to take the third set 25-14. This capped off a sweep for La Roche and ended King's tri-match streak of seven sweeps in tri-match games. 

Despite this loss, King's had more digs then La Roche with 48. Shepherd led the team with eight kills followed by seven from Kindall and three from Campanile. Bryant served up two aces along with one from Williams and Moses. Shire again led the team in assists with 16 followed by Keely Hoban with five. Williams put up 10 digs while Conforti had nine and Bryant seven. 

For La Roche, first year Kalli Grine had a game-high 11 kills. Fifth year Bethany Nulph and junior Lauren Tomasko had eight kills. Nulph also had six service aces and tied for the team lead in digs with junior Mackenzie Kerkan at 14. Junior Madison Johnson tallied 16 assists followed by senior Cassidy Rossi with 13.

The Monarchs will return home on Wednesday where they will host a Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom matchup with Misericordia University. Action will get underway at 7:00 p.m. at McGrane Gymnasium.