Behrend Tops Hilbert, 3-1

ERIE, Pa. – After two close sets to start the match, the Penn State Behrend women's volleyball team held on for a 3-1 victory over Hilbert in Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) action on Wednesday night.

The Lions (14-3, 4-0 AMCC) won the first set 26-24 and the Hawks (7-15, 3-1 AMCC) took the second, 25-23, before Behrend only allowed a combined 29 points in the final two sets (25-12, 25-17) for its fourth conference victory.

Meredith Snyder (Parker, PA/Allegheny Clarion Valley) and Lindsay Bean (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) had double-digit kills with 10 apiece. Tory Storino (Pittsburgh, PA/Norwin) led with 19 digs and Chelsea Magnusen (Plum, PA/Plum) registered 33 assists, seven digs and six kills.

Allegra Johnson totaled a game-high 18 kills on 50 attempts to go with eight digs for Hilbert.

In a tight first set, the Lions had a chance to win at 24-22 but surrendered two points on attack errors to tie it a 24-all. Luckily, the Hawks had two errors to end the set and favor Behrend for a 1-0 lead.

Hilbert avenged the first-set loss with kills by Shannon Memminger, Amanda Binder and Johnson to win the second game by a small 25-23 margin and knot the match at 1-all.

The Lions never trailed in the third. Behrend opened up some breathing room with a 19-11 lead and closed out the game on a 6-1 run.  

Only trailing after the first point in the fourth, the Lions grabbed a 9-4 lead to force a Hilbert timeout. The Hawks got within two at 15-13, but Behrend used a 10-4 spurt to seal the win.

Amber Ricci (Pittsburgh, PA/Oakland Catholic) contributed 12 digs, while Courtney Hopson (Erie, PA/McDowell) served up three aces and recorded nine digs.  

The Lions return to action on Friday against Catholic at the Knights Classic hosted by Neumann. Match begins at 6 p.m.