WILKES-BARRE, PA (OCTOBER 14, 2023) -- The King's College women's volleyball team end the week strong with a weekend sweep in McGrane Gymnasium. The Monarchs (13-7) defeated both the Purchase College Panthers (4-15) and The College of Old Westbury Panthers (2-15) 3-0 Saturday afternoon.

vs. Purchase - W, 3-0 (25-13, 25-10, 25-8):
Purchase (4-14) made a strong push to start the opening match of the day, going ahead 6-2 early, but after trading points King's (12-7) six unanswered points to regain the lead, 11-8. It would be all Monarchs down the stretch as the defense limited the Panthers to just five points on their way to a 25-13 set one victory.
 
It was a different story in the second as the Monarchs took a commanding 15-3 edge behind three kills from Joy Kindall (So.) and three aces from Bella Salvia (So.). Purchase made a small push late in the set to close within 21-10, but a pair of aces from Emma Monson (Jr.) and kills from Lindsay Arezina (Fy.) and Kindall secured the set two win, 25-10, to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
The Monarchs cruised through the final set of the match, giving up just eight points and limiting the Panthers to an abysmal -.333 hitting percentage, defeating Purchase 25-8 in the third and 3-0 in the match.
 
Kindall led the offensive attack with an impressive .524 hitting percentage, totaling 13 kills on 21 attempts with just two errors, while Theresa Lynch added six kills in two sets with five digs. Kathy Shepherd rounded out the strong offensive effort with six kills on nine attempts with no errors, hitting .667, with five digs. Keely Hoban facilitated the offense with 35 assists while adding four digs. The defense was paced by eight digs from Morgan Williams, while Monson tallied seven with two aces. At the net, Emily Scott led the block game with two with four other Monarchs adding their own block.
 
Purchase was led by Ava Landreth with four kills, while Natalia Leite totaled 13 assists and a match-high nine digs.

As a team, the Monarchs dominated the stat sheet in every category, including kills (37-14), aces (8-2), blocks (3-1), assists (36-14), and digs (42-29). The defensive effort of the Monarchs was also stifling in the win, limiting the Panthers to a -.140 hitting percentage with 26 attack errors while thriving offensively, hitting .338 for the match.

vs. Old Westbury- W, 3-0 (25-13, 25-15, 25-12):
King's (13-7) controlled much of the first set with a 22-11 start that included multiple players on the stat sheet. After two straight points by Old Westbury (2-15), the Monarchs would end it by an ace from Keely Hoban (Jr.) and won 25-13. 

King's maintained their momentum in the second set with a 6-2 run that included kills by Theresa Lynch (So.) and Joy Kindall (So.). The Panthers continued to pester the Monarchs by having small two point spurts. King's prevailed by having another 8-1 jolt to cushion their lead of 21-12. With one last hope, Old Westbury added three tallies on the scoreboard to make it 21-15. The Monarchs roared back with four unanswered points to take the second set 25-15.

The third and final set of the evening was much like the first and King's dominated the majority of the way. The Panthers tried to create some drive, but the hosts had every answer. The Monarchs had a final kill by Mia Campanile (So.) and the remained victorious 25-12.

King's ended the afternoon with 30 kills, 31 assists, eight aces, 66 digs, and a hitting percentage of .155. Kindall pushed the offense with seven kills, while Kathy Shepherd (So.) and Campanile both had five. Hoban dished out 25 assists in the matchup. Morgan Williams (So.) set a standard of 16 digs and Emma Monson (Jr.) had her own 13. 

Old Westbury's Stephanie Maser had eight kills and Sam Geanelle had seven assists. Holyanne Hansen and Jonangeliz Alvarez Rodriguez led the defense with 12 digs each. 

The Monarchs are back in action Wednesday, October 18^th at 7 p.m. for a Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom battle against Stevens. The squad will return to McGrane Gymnasium for Senior Day on Saturday, October 21^st to take on Rutgers-Newark and Albright starting at 12 p.m.