The Lancaster Bible College Women's Volleyball team hosted their first Saturday tri-match of the season as they opened United East Conference play against Penn College and welcomed Keuka in non-conference action, sweeping both matches for a pair of home wins. The Chargers improve to 4-5 overall and 1-0 in the United East while the Wildcats drop to 0-16 overall and 0-1 in the United East and the Wolves move to 7-8 overall.
vs Penn College:
3-0 WIN (25-13, 25-16, 25-9)
How it Happened:
The Chargers took an early 4-2 lead in set one as a block and a kill by
Chloe Belford (Sr.) set the tone, then after some back and forth, a three-point run helped LBC to a 13-9 lead. The Chargers broke it open down the stretch with a run of nine straight points, their longest of the season thus far, featuring three service aces from
Tessa Kwiatkowski (Sr.) as the lead stretched to 22-10. A three-point close highlighted by an ace from
Lea Sareyka (Sr.) capped a 25-13 win in the opening set.
Penn College got off to a 3-0 start in the second set, but the Chargers got right back in it with four points in a row to take the lead at 7-5.
Jessica Fletcher (Sr.) had an ace three points later to extend the lead to three, then a kill and a block from Belford later on put LBC up 14-10. Sareyka then had a kill and two aces with
Candace Fox (Jr.) adding a kill for a four-point LBC swing, then the Chargers added another four straight points that ended with a kill from
Samantha Hey (So.). The Chargers won the final three points to close out a 25-16 set victory and go up 2-0 in the match.
It was all Chargers early in set three as LBC got off to a 7-0 start, with Hey leading the charge with three blocks and Fox adding a kill and an ace. The lead extended to 10-1 for the Chargers before two kills by
Hannah Helmer (Fr.) made the lead 10 points.
Kaitlyn Weitzel (Jr.) landed back-to-back service aces for an 18-5 LBC advantage, then two aces from
Maggie Kwiatkowski (Jr.) helped the Chargers close in on a dominant 25-9 set win to close out a sweep of the Wildcats for a United East win at home.
By the Numbers:
Team Stats
- Kills: Penn College 17,
Lancaster Bible 31
- Digs: Penn College 22,
Lancaster Bible 33
- Blocks: Penn College 3,
Lancaster Bible 7
- Aces: Penn College 2,
Lancaster Bible 13
Key Performances
-
Hannah Helmer: 7 Kills (match-high), .385 attack %, 2 Blocks
-
Tessa Kwiatkowski: 15 Assists, 3 Aces
-
Maggie Kwiatkowski: 11 Digs (match-high), 3 Aces
-
Chloe Belford: 4 Blocks (match-high), 4 Kills
- Peyton Maass (PCT): 6 Kills
(team-high
), 5 Digs
- Callie Riddle (PCT): 9 Digs (team-high)
vs Keuka:
3-0 WIN (25-14, 25-8, 25-17)
How it Happened:
After the Wolves won the first two points, the Chargers took off on a run of seven straight points, featuring two kills from both
Eden Belford (Sr.) and
Lea Sareyka. A service ace by
Maggie Kwiatkowski made it 9-3 in favor of the Chargers, then later on the score became a nine-point lead for LBC at 15-6 after a Keuka error. Another kill from Belford helped LBC to double up the Wolves at 20-10, then Sareyka closed out the set for LBC 25-14 on a service ace.
The teams alternated the first eight points of the second set before the Chargers exploded on offense with nine consecutive scores, seeing kills from
Chloe Belford,
Jessica Fletcher, and another ace from Sareyka to give LBC a 12-4 advantage. A block from
Eden Belford and
Samantha Hey made the lead 10 points for LBC at 16-6, then the Chargers closed in a hurry with nine of the final 10 points as Hey and Sareyka had several kills, ending the blowout set two at 25-8 as
Madeline Reed (Sr.) had a setter dump for a kill.
The third set was tight early on as the score was tied on each of the first eight exchanges, with
Hannah Helmer and Hey keeping pace for the Chargers.
Eden Belford had a kill to tie the set at 10-10, then a quick run of four points for LBC kickstarted by a Sareyka kill gave the Chargers separation at 14-11. Two aces by Sareyka capped another four-point burst from the Chargers before a kill by Helmer put LBC up 21-15, then the Chargers got the final three points of the set to close out the Wolves 25-17 in set three and complete a six-set Saturday sweep to end their five-game homestand with three straight wins.
By the Numbers:
Team Stats
- Kills: Keuka 17,
Lancaster Bible 40
- Digs: Keuka 35,
Lancaster Bible 41
- Blocks: Keuka 2,
Lancaster Bible 5
- Aces: Keuka 3,
Lancaster Bible 7
Key Performances
-
Eden Belford: 11 Kills (match-high), .579 hitting %
-
Lea Sareyka: 10 Kills, 4 Aces (match-high)
-
Madeline Reed: 18 Assists
-
Maggie Kwiatkowski: 13 Digs
(career-high)
- Gabby Rodriguez (KEU): 18 Digs (match-high)
- Anna Beck (KEU): 2 Blocks
Information to Know:
The Chargers are now 10-0 all-time against Penn College and 5-7 all-time against Keuka, with the Wolves being a former conference opponent of Lancaster Bible in the NEAC from 2011-2020. The Chargers have now won three straight games for the first time this season and have their longest win streak under first-year head coach
Justin Brubaker, winning three straight home matches for the first time since October 22 of last season. This is the fifth straight season that the Chargers have won their opening United East match and their fourth year in a row sweeping their first conference game.
Lea Sareyka became just the fifth player in program history to surpass 800 career kills in the second match today, joining Lauren Heliger, Katie Coomber, Ashtyn Bouslog, and Hannah Gipe to round out the top-five players in LBC history in kills. Sareyka also moved into sole possession of 10th-Place in program history in career service aces with 151, breaking a tie with Sukey Reed (2001-04) and becoming one of 10 players in LBC history with 150+ service aces.
Tessa Kwiatkowski became the ninth player in program history to reach 700 career assists, passing Kim Barth (1994-97) for 9th-Place on the list with 702 assists.
Eden Belford moved into 15th in LBC history in career kills today with 564, breaking a tie with Alyssa Bowen (2015-16) and passing Aleah Heyworth (2017-19) on the all-time list.
Up Next:
The Chargers have their first road conference game on Wednesday, September 30 as they make the long trip down to St. Mary's City, Md. to take on defending United East Champion St. Mary's (Md.) at 7:00 p.m.
