WILKES-BARRE, PA (September 19, 2022) - The King's College Monarchs women's volleyball team continued their home court success as they picked up another 3-0 sweep on Monday night over the Penn State Hazleton Nittany Lions. The Monarchs improve to 6-2 overall and have won five straight. With this win they also earned their 19th consecutive victory at McGrane Gymnasium. With this loss the Nittany Lions fall to 4-2 on the season. 

Early in the first set, each team had a run of their own. The Nittany Lions scored the first seven points but the Monarchs responded with an 18-3 stretch to take a commanding lead. Five different Monarchs had kills during this run. Adriana Conforti served up a trio of aces. Bella Salvia closed out the set with a couple of aces of her own as the Monarchs took the first one 25-15.

Kathy Shepherd led the King's attack in the second set with seven kills, including three straight towards the beginning. Additionally, Conforti had yet another trio of service aces. The team did not trail once in the set. The Nittany Lions bit their way back into it towards the end. But captain Kayla Sondberg got two big kills late as the Monarchs escaped with a 25-20 win. 

The Monarchs started out the third set with a bang, going on an early 10-5 run thanks to kills by Sondberg, Salvia and Theresa Lynch. The Monarchs lead never wavered. Shepherd added to her big night with a couple of service aces. An attack by Joy Kindall shut the door on the Nittany Lions as the Monarchs took the final set 25-15.

The Monarchs outplayed the Nittany Lions in most facets of the game. They outhit the opposition .217 to .111 and finished with 36 kills while their counterparts recorded 29. Shepherd led the Monarchs on the night with 12 kills followed by Sondberg with nine and Kindall with six. The team also out-served the Nittany Lions with 14 service aces versus six. Six of those aces came from Conforti who also had a team high 18 assists on the night. Salvia had an additional three aces and Shepherd had two. Carly Shire followed Conforti with 12 assists and Morgan Williams had three. Coming off her second straight MAC Defensive Player of the Week honor, Williams had 13 digs. This was followed by 10 from Shire and seven from Devan Moses.

Sydney Mack led the Nittany Lions with 10 kills. Jadyn Hooper had five and Rachael Gerfin totaled four. Hooper also had four aces. Mackenzie Riccardi recorded 19 assists. Defensively, the group was led by Alayna Welsh who posted 17 digs followed by 13 from Riccardi and 12 from Mack.

The Monarchs will return to action on Wednesday for their first MAC Freedom home matchup of the season where they will host the Stevens Ducks. The game is set to begin at 7:00 p.m.