Lions Defeat Alfred; Saunders Named All-Tournament Team

ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend women's volleyball finished with a 2-2 overall record for the 2017 Northwest PA Challenge Tournament, defeating Alfred 3-1 and dropping a 3-0 decision to Bethany on Saturday afternoon at the Junker Center.

The Lions (3-5) managed a 25-21, 24-26, 25-15 and 25-22 victory against the Saxons in the opening match of the day, before falling 25-16, 25-19, 25-15 to the Bison. Hannah Saunders (Elizabeth, PA/Elizabeth Forward) was named to the All-Tournament Team for recording 105 assists, 27 digs, 24 kills, 11 blocks and three aces over the four matches.

Rachel Frye (Leechburg, PA/Kiski) tallied a career-high 22 kills against Alfred and finished the day with 37 kills for a .378 hitting percentage.

In the opener and down 11-9, Behrend used a small 6-1 spurt to pull ahead at 15-12 and stay there for the early lead. Saunders had three kills down the stretch and Madison Clapper (Hollidaysburg, PA/Hollidaysburg) tallied 10 digs in the first set alone for a strong defensive effort to start.

The Lions had set point at 24-23 in the second set, but Amber Smith recorded back-to-back kills for Alfred's set point. The Saxons too advantage of an attack error to knot the match at 1-all. A 10-2 run in the third set propelled Behrend ahead 20-11, before winning on a pair of Alfred errors at the end to make it 25-15.

In the fourth set, the Lions rallied down five points to win by three. Tied at 22-all, Frye and Amanda Henry (Bridgeville, PA/South Fayette) knocked down kills to put Behrend two points from winning the match. After the Alfred timeout, the Saxons got one more point and then committed a service error to set up the final kill from Frye to win 25-22.

Henry ended with 11 kills and Keely Hering (North East, PA/North East) tallied double-digit digs with 10.

Frye led the Lions against Bethany with 15 kills on 31 attempts with just three errors.

As a team, Behrend tallied 13 kills in the first set, 15 in the second and 10 in the third. In the middle of the first set, the Bison went on a 10-4 run to help keep their distance from the Lion down the stretch for a 25-16 win.

Falling behind six points in the second, Behrend got within three on two occasions including 21-18 but a few errors combined with a few kills from Bethany made it 25-19 for a 2-0 lead.

The Saxons relied on serving and defense in the third set to defeat the Lions, 25-15.

Behrend returns to action on Tuesday at Fredonia. Match begins at 7 p.m.