WILLIAMSPORT PA (September 27, 2022) -- In what initially looked like a runaway for the Lycoming College Warriors on Tuesday night, the King's College Monarchs women's volleyball team mounted an electric comeback that just came up short, falling 3-2. With this loss the Monarchs drop to 8-4 overall, 0-3 in Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom play. The Warriors improve to 10-5 overall, 2-2 in MAC Freedom play. 

The first set saw the teams trade points early on. Bella Salvia and Emma Monson recorded kills while Joy Kindall and Kayla Sondberg had a block. The Warriors pulled away however with an 18-3 stretch to take the first set 25-9.

Looking to redeem themselves in the second set, the team was able to prevent the opposition from going on another early run as Kindall began to find her groove offensively against a tough defensive  Warriors squad. King's found themselves in a 21-15 deficit when Kathy Shepherd had a kill and Adriana Conforti served up another ace to bring the Monarchs within three and force a Lycoming timeout. In the end, the Warriors got the edge by winning the second set 25-20 to take a 2-0 lead.

Needing a win to stay alive, the Monarchs fell behind early in the third set 10-6. But thanks to more kills from Kindall, Monson and Shepherd the Monarchs did not break. Kindall found comfort spiking the ball on the front left area of the Lycoming side. Bella Salvia had a key heads-up block to tie the score at 17. From there they never looked back. The team went on a late 8-4 stretch to stay alive and take the third set 25-21.

Looking to bring some of this explosive momentum to the fourth set, five different Monarchs recorded kills out of the gate. The team took a commanding 17-6 lead. The Warriors attempted a slight comeback with four straight straight points that was quickly slowed down, thanks to a sneaky tip by Sondberg. King's took the fourth set by a dominant 25-12 margin to tie everything up and force a deciding fifth  set. 

Their momentum continued to swing into the early parts of the final set, as they took a 3-0 lead. It looked as though they had the Warriors scrambling in an uncomfortable situation. Shepherd got another big kill to give the Monarchs an 8-6 lead halfway through. The teams kept things knotted up the rest of the way as the score was tied five different times, more then in any of the other sets. The Monarchs took a 14-13 lead on a kill by Kindall. Lycoming would tie it up at 14 apiece with either team now needing to win by two. The Warriors did just that as they got kills from senior Elizabeth Kelson and sophomore Brynne Bisel to escape with a 16-14 win, despite a valiant comeback effort by the Monarchs.

Kindall had another major game for the offensively with 17 kills. Shepherd and Monson each had career-highs in kills with 13 and eight. As a team the Monarchs had 48 kills, 78 digs, three blocks, seven service aces and 42 assists. Their 42 assists were even with the Warriors total. Carly Shire had a team-high 23 assists followed by 13 from Keely Hoban. Morgan Williams led the defense with 24 digs while Shire had 12 and Morgan Bryant had 11. Conforti served up four aces while Kindall added to her impressive resume on the night with two blocks.

Kelson had 14 of the 49 kills for the Warriors and first year Cameron Upcraft recorded 11. Upcraft also had a big night up at the net with six blocks. Sophomore Kendall Myers tallied a game-high 29 digs which were followed by 15 from sophomore Marykatelin Button. Button also registered a game-high 40 assists. Bisel had five service aces.

The Monarchs will look to bring this exciting action back home to McGrane Gymnasium on Thursday night when they will host Bryn Mawr College. The game will start at 7:00 p.m.