Volleyball Returns to AMCC Championship Match

ERIE, Pa. – Lindsay Bean (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) and Alyssa Samarco (Plum, PA/Plum) each tallied 10 kills to lead the Penn State Behrend women's volleyball team past Hilbert 3-0 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) semifinals on Saturday afternoon.

The Lions (21-8) advance to their second straight championship match and will face sixth-seeded Pitt-Bradford tomorrow for the title at 1 p.m. The Panthers upset second-seed Franciscan in a thrilling 3-2 victory.

Behrend came out ready with its sights set on capturing the third conference championship in program history, defeating the Hawks 25-21, 25-19 and 25-13. Behrend dominated both defensively and offensively to breeze into the title match.

The Lions never trailed in the first two sets. In the opening game, Behrend took a nine-point lead at 20-11 on an Ashley Solo (Irwin, PA/Penn-Trafford) kill to force a Hilbert timeout. The Hawks used a 7-0 run to make it 20-18, but three more kills from Solo put the game away at 25-21.

In the second set, the Lions hit. 387 behind 14 kills with just two errors to take a 2-0 lead in the match. Meredith Snyder (Parker, PA/Allegheny Clarion Valley) and Samarco had four kills each. Down the stretch, Amber Ricci (Pittsburgh, PA/Oakland Catholic) put Behrend up 23-18 and Samarco nailed down a pair of kills for a 25-19 win.

After taking an 18-13 in the third set, Chelsea Magnusen (Plum, PA/Plum) held onto the serve and earning two aces for the final seven points to never let Hilbert in the game for a 25-13 victory.

Magnusen finished with 31 assists, 10 digs and four aces. Tory Storino (Pittsburgh, PA/Norwin) joined Magnusen with 10 digs.