WILKES-BARRE, PA (October 19, 2022): The King's College Monarchs women's volleyball team put up three fairly close sets, but fell to the Misericordia University Cougars 3-0 on Wednesday night at McGrane Gymnasium. With this loss, King's falls to 15-8 overall and 0-6 in Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom play. Misericordia improves to 18-7 overall, 4-2 in MAC Freedom play.

King's kept up with the Cougars in a thrilling opening set that saw 11 ties and seven lead changes. Trailing 15-13, the Monarchs scored four straight points thanks to kills by Joy Kindall and Carly Shire to take a 17-15 lead. The Cougars responded with a late 10-2 run and came away with the first set 25-19.

The team found themselves in several large holes in the following set including 12-5, 21-12 and 24-13. They showed no quit however. Adriana Conforti came up big late in the set with a kill and a service ace as King's scored four straight points to cut the deficit to 24-17. In the end however, the Cougars escaped with a 25-17 win in the second set. 

Needing to stay alive in the third set, the Monarchs went on an early 8-3 run which featured kills by  Kindall, Conforti and Kayla Sondberg as well as an Emma Monson service ace. The Cougars went on a 14-4 stretch to pin the the Monarchs back in a 21-13. The team came through with three kills, two by Shepherd and one by Monson to give themselves a fighting chance down 21-16. The Cougars closed the door on the Monarchs taking the final set 25-17 to complete the sweep. 

Defensively, both teams had 35 digs on the night. Morgan Bryant led the Monarchs with 10 followed by Morgan Williams with eight and Shepherd with five. Monson had a season-high six kills to lead the attack along with a service ace. Sondberg and Shepherd followed Monson with four kills each. Monson also assisted on the one Monarchs block. Shire and Conforti had the other two aces. Shire led the team with 13 assists. Keely Hoban was second with three and Williams had two.

Senior Fiona Pyfer led the Cougars with 11 kills. Graduate student Shelby Hastings had six kills and senior Adele Decker five. Hastings also had three blocks. First year Jenna Schuda had a game-high 30 assists. Pyfer also led the team with nine digs. Senior Faith Merritt served up three aces on the night.

The Monarchs will see their next action on Sunday as they will host a tri-match against Medgar Evers College and Yeshiva University starting at 12:00 p.m. at McGrane Gymnasium.