The Lancaster Bible College women's volleyball team won its fifth straight match on Friday afternoon, celebrating the start of Homecoming Weekend with a 3-0 sweep of Penn St. Berks at Horst Athletic Center. The Chargers won, 25-9, 25-17, 25-21 to improve to 11-5 overall and 4-0 in North Eastern Athletic Conference play, while the Nittany Lions fell to 5-13 overall and 3-2 in conference action.

Match Recap: The Chargers put their foot on the gas immediately, jumping out to a 16-1 lead in the opening set, thanks to timely serving, big kills, and Nittany Lion errors. After opening a 3-0 lead, the Chargers gave up a point, and then scored the next 13 points, as Courtney Goyak had two kills, while Aleah Heyworth added three aces. The teams split the remaining points in the first set, as kills by Heyworth and Ashtyn Bouslog closed out the set.

Lancaster Bible kept the momentum into the second set, as Goyak had three kills in four points to give the Chargers a 6-4 advantage, and kills by Kacey Smith and Heyworth followed, and Lancaster Bible took leads of 8-5 and 12-8 later in the set. The Nittany Lions would win four of five points midway through the set, and trailed just 14-13 after a service error by the Chargers. Lancaster Bible hung tough and rattled off three straight points thanks to a kill from Hannah Thompson, and two errors by the Nittany Lions.

Penn St. Berks would close the gap to two, but Lancaster Bible won seven of the final eight points of the set, and took it, 25-17 after two straight errors by the Nittany Lions.

After two early aces from Heyworth in the third set, the Chargers grabbed a 7-3 lead after kills from Hannah Gipe and Bekah Roberts. Penn St. Berks closed its deficit to 11-9, but kills from Heyworth and Goyak sandwiched around yet another ace from Heyworth, gave the Chargers a 14-9 advantage. The Nittany Lions again closed the gap to two, 16-14, but the Chargers took five of the next six points to lead, 21-15 and then closed the match on two straight Penn St. Berks' errors.

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible had 34 kills, while the Nittany Lions had 22...The Chargers had all eight aces of the match, and led in digs, 49-46...Goyak finished with 10 kills and three blocks, while Bouslog had eight kills and four digs...Heyworth had seven kills, 10 digs and a team-high six aces...Thompson finished with a team-high 15 digs, while Allison Shuey had two kills, 27 assists, two blocks and five digs.

The Coach Says: "We challenged the team before the match to worry about doing the right thing, not the result," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Micah Herron said. "When we do that, the scoreboard takes care of itself, and it did that this afternoon."

On the team's overall play: "In that first set, we played confidently, and stayed at that level for much of the match," Herron said. "Berks responded a bit, but I thought we stayed at about the same level for much of the match. We are going to have to keep doing that when we play these top teams in the conference. We can't have a letdown, and I thought we did a good job of not having one of those today."

On the reaching the midpoint of the season: "I'm proud of the way we have been playing," Herron said. "We have raised our level of play over the past two weeks, and I give the team credit for continuing to buy in and challenge themselves."

Information Hodge Podge: Penn St. Berks leads the all-time series 15-8...Friday's win is the first for Lancaster Bible over Penn St. Berks since Sept. 5, 2015...The Nittany Lions had won the past five matches, and the Chargers are now 2-9 in the past 11 matches against Penn St. Berks...This is the first time in Lancaster Bible's eight years in the NEAC that the Chargers have started out 4-0...The Chargers now have 11 wins, after collecting 12 all of last season.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible is off until next Friday when the Chargers host Gallaudet at 6 p.m.