Altoona Defeats Behrend in AMCC Semifinals

ALTOONA, Pa. – The top-seeded Penn State Altoona women's volleyball defeated No. 5 Penn State Behrend 3-2 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) semifinals in Alder Gym on Saturday afternoon.

The Altoona Lions (16-12) posted their second win this season over the Lions (19-12), needing five sets (25-16, 25-27, 25-17, 10-25, 15-10) to advance to the AMCC Championship game.  Altoona had three players with double-digit kills, led by Tori Shingler with 15 kills. Becky Britton posted a double-double with 16 digs and 12 kills in the win.

For Behrend, Alyssa Samarco (Plum, PA/Plum) hit .312 with 19 kills on 48 attempts with four errors. She also added 10 dig, three aces and three blocks.

Altoona grabbed the first set, taking a 19-9 lead that turned into a 25-16 victory. The Behrend Lions evened the score with a 27-25 second set behind seven kills by Samarco.

The match when in Altoona's favor after the third match, winning 25-17, but Behrend only allowed 10 points in the fourth set to get to a fifth set. The Lions went ahead 8-2 to start the fourth game and got to a double-digit lead that stood the entire set for a 25-10 victory.

Altoona never trailed in the fifth set, however the Lions got within one at 7-6. Three straight Altoona Lion points pushed the lead to 10-6. Shingler and Britton each tallied a kill and Altoona won on a service error for the win.

Hannah Saunders (Elizabeth, PA/Elizabeth Forward) added 26 assists and eight digs, while Courtney Hopson (Erie, PA/McDowell) tallied 23 digs.