King's College Athletics

WILKES-BARRE, PA (October 10, 2023) -- Morgan Williams tied the second-most digs in a four-set game to lead a match filled with several career performances on Tuesday night. The King's College women's volleyball team rallied behind these efforts to defeat the visiting Delaware Valley University, 3-1, in Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) play in McGrane Gymnasium. With the win, the Monarchs pick up their first conference win and improve to 11-7 overall and 1-3 in the MAC Freedom standings, while the Aggies drop to 9-7 with a 1-3 conference mark.
 
The opening set was closely contested and set the tone for the entire match from the start. Neither team led by more than two points early before King's (11-7, 1-3 MAC Freedom) rallied off four unanswered points, including an ace from Bella Salvia, to take an 11-6 edge. A 6-3 Monarchs run saw the lead swell to 17-9 before Delaware Valley (9-7, 1-3 MAC Freedom) battled back with their own 6-0 spurt to close within 20-18. The Aggies attempted to extend the set, but a pair of kills from Joy Kindall and Kathy Shepherd put the set away for the hosts with a 25-23 victory.
 
It was a battle throughout the second that saw the Aggies holding an 11-8 advantage, but the Monarchs used two kills from Kindall and a kill each from Bella Salvia and Shepherd to knot the score at 13-13. Delaware Valley attempted to pull away again, but King's climbed back to tie the set at 23 on three consecutive kills from Kindall. The visitors had the final word in the set to defeat the Monarchs, 25-23, and tie the match, 1-1.
 
King's took command in the third and put up an impressive .323 hitting percentage with just three errors in the set. The Monarchs stormed out to a 17-9 lead before Delaware Valley staged a comeback to close within 21-17.  Salvia helped lead the four-point surge to end the set with the Monarchs on top, 25-17.
 
The fourth and final set featured 10 ties and eight lead changes with each team responding to their counterpart. King's led, 21-17, late on back-to-back aces from Kindall, but Delaware Valley would not go down without a fight, going on a 7-3 rally to tie the set at 24-24. Salvia was the answer for King's in the final points, recording consecutive kills to secure the fourth set win, 26-24, and the match, 3-1, over Delaware Valley in the MAC Freedom contest.
 
A 34-dig performance from Williams marks the second-most digs in a four-set match and the most since 2018, while the junior contributed three assists and two aces. Kindall posted a career-high 19 kills on 37 attempts with just two errors, hitting .459 for the match, while Salvia had a double-double of 12 digs and 11 kills with a .360 hitting percentage. Emily Scott helped round out the offensive effort with nine kills, while Shepherd added seven. Keely Hoban set a new career-best with 48 assists while totaling nine digs, and Emma Monson also had a career performance of 20 digs in the team win. Additionally, Devan Moses recorded 16 digs to lead the defense, while Madisyn Heiser-Else led the attack at the net with three blocks.
 
Olivia Deffendall paced three in double figures for Delaware Valley with 14 kills, while Grace Kane had a double-double of 17 digs and 11 kills with three aces. Monique Smith lent out 23 helpers with five blocks for the Aggies in the loss.
 
As a team, the Monarchs hit .193 for the match while limiting the Aggies to a .150 hitting percentage. King's had the edge inside the box score in kills (55-51), assists (52-46), and digs (96-74).
 
King's will remain in Wilkes-Barre this weekend as they host Purchase and The College at Old Westbury in a non-conference tri-match beginning at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday in McGrane Gymnasium.