Lancaster Bible College Athletics

The Lancaster Bible College Women's Volleyball team celebrated Homecoming weekend on campus on Friday night as they took on crosstown foe Franklin & Marshall, falling in five sets 3-2 after a tight match from start to finish. The Chargers drop to 1-5 overall while the Diplomats improve to 6-3 overall.
 
How it Happened:
The Diplomats grabbed the lead early as they raced to 6-2, increasing the lead to 9-4 before a three-point run from LBC was capped by a service ace from Ashby Brummer (So.), bring the Chargers within two. The next rally began a four-point swing for the Chargers with Lea Sareyka (Sr.) landing a kill to give LBC the lead at 11-10. The Chargers maintained the lead with big kills from Samantha Hey (So.) and Eden Belford (Sr.), then later used a kill and a block from Brummer to extend the lead all the way to 20-14. The Diplomats made a late push to pull within two, but the Chargers held on to win set one 25-22.
 
Sareyka landed a pair of service aces amidst a 4-1 start to set two for the Chargers, but the Diplomats answered with five of the next seven points to tie it up at 6-6. The set went on to feature 16 total tied scores as the teams traded big blows throughout the middle of the set, but the Diplomats found a run of four points to swing ahead 21-19. LBC responded with two to tie the set at 21-all on an ace from Sareyka, then Belford and Jessica Fletcher (Sr.) had kills to help the Chargers fend off set point and send it to extra points. Down 25-24, Hannah Helmer (Fr.) tied the set up for the Chargers, then a service ace from Chloe Belford (Sr.) delivered the final blow of the set to secure the comeback win for LBC 27-25 in set two.
 
Fletcher had three early kills in the third set to pace the Chargers as F&M grabbed the set lead at 7-3, then the teams traded 10 straight rallies before the Diplomats had two to lead 13-8. Helmer had a kill to get LBC within three, then Chloe Belford had another ace as the Chargers trailed just 17-16. Franklin & Marshall surged late as they won six straight points to reach set point, winning 25-18 to stay alive and force LBC to their first fourth set of the season.
 
The Chargers grabbed a 4-2 lead in set four with kills from four different players, then extended the lead to 7-4 after back-to-back kills from Helmer. The Diplomats flipped the score quickly to take a 9-8 lead, but the Chargers responded as they won five of the next six points as Hey had a solo block and Madison Reap (Jr.) had a service ace to back up her stellar defensive play. After some back-and-forth in the middle of the set, the Chargers won four straight points to take a 21-16 advantage to force two F&M timeouts, but the Diplomats grabbed momentum with five consecutive points to pull ahead 23-22. A combined block by Fletcher and Chloe Belford got the Chargers to match point, but the Diplomats capped a three-point swing with a service ace to steal set four 26-24 and force a decisive fifth set.
 
Franklin & Marshall started set five strong with a 3-0 lead, but three straight kills by the Chargers reset the score and tied it up. Not backing down, the Diplomats ran for four straight points, but another three in a row from Lancaster Bible ended with a service ace from Kaitlyn Weitzel (Jr.) to make it 7-6. It was all Diplomats for the rest of the set, closing strong with nine of the final ten points including a six-point run to end the match, winning the set 15-7 and finishing the reverse sweep of the Chargers to spoil the Chargers' Homecoming match.
 
By the Numbers:
Team Stats
- Kills: Franklin & Marshall 56, Lancaster Bible 52
- Digs: Franklin & Marshall 106, Lancaster Bible 102
- Blocks: Franklin & Marshall 10, Lancaster Bible 8
- Aces: Franklin & Marshall 14, Lancaster Bible 11
 
Key Performances
- Madison Reap: 37 Digs (career-high)
- Jessica Fletcher: 14 Kills, 18 Digs (season-highs for both)
- Lea Sareyka: 10 Assists, 7 Digs, 4 Aces (team-high)
- Madeline Reed (Sr.): 21 Assists (team-high), 10 Digs
- Tessa Kwiatkowski (Sr.): 20 Assists, 13 Digs
- Ceci Connolly (F&M): 20 Kills (match-high), 15 Digs
- Carly Campbell (F&M): 40 Assists (match-high), 16 Digs, 5 Aces (match-high)

Information to Know:
The Chargers are now 0-14 all-time against Franklin & Marshall in Women's Volleyball with this being their first time going to five sets since 2012. This was the Chargers' first match to go past three sets this season and their first five-set match at home since November 1, 2025 against St. Mary's (Md.). The Chargers posted 102 total digs in tonight's five-set match, making this the first 100-dig game for LBC since September 4, 2024 at home against Messiah. Madison Reap recorded a career-high 37 digs in tonight's match, giving her the third-most digs in a single match in program history and becoming just the fourth player in LBC history to record 35+ digs in a match. Reap also moved into the top-20 in LBC program history in career digs, moving into 20th all-time with 648 career digs. Jessica Fletcher moved into 9th-place all-time for the Chargers in career kills with 14 tonight, passing Hannah Noble (2005-08) and now sitting with 674 career kills.
 
Up Next:
The Chargers remain at home next Wednesday, September 23 as they take on Gettysburg in the Horst Athletic Center at 7:00 p.m.