Millersville, Pa.- Mercyhurst Volleyball opened up their 2023 campaign with two games against Millersville and Wilmington. Both games went to five sets, but Millersville and Wilmington came away with wins in both.
Game One
In game one the Lakers faced Millersville. The match started out with Millersville taking the lead by a score of 7-5. Alexa Mitchell was able to find an opening and get the kill to bring the score within one. After some back and forth from both sides, Millersville opened up the scoring taking an 18-14 lead. The Lakers didn't go away though, they tied it up at 18 after some miscues by Millersville and an Andrea Zaric kill. Nobody could pull away from each other in the match, and it went back and forth until Millersville was able to finally put the Lakers away, taking the first set 32-30.
Millersville took an early lead in set two. Andrea Zaric added a kill to cut the Millersville lead to 11-8. Millersville was able to pull away a bit, but the Lakers were able to keep it close. A block by Kaitlyn Murphy and Mevelyn Brazoban cut the Millersville lead to 23-19. Millersville was able to finish off the Lakers in set two and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Lakers won the next two sets by a score of 25-23 in set three and 25-22 in set four to tie it up at 2-2 in the match. Alexa Mitchell led off the set three with back-to-back service aces. Andrea Zaric continued to stay hot with two more kills to add on to the Laker lead. Alia Mastromatteo got in the box score with a service ace. Set four was led by Andrea Zaric who had multiple kills, Mevelyn Brazoban who had multiple kills, Corrine Bechtold who had a service ace, and Alexa Mitchell who capped off the set three win with a service ace.
Alexa Mitchell started set five on a 4-0 run herself with three straight service aces and a kill to cap off the run. The Lakers were unable to keep the same success throughout the set as they would drop set five 15-12, and Millersville would take the match 3-2.
Game Two
In game two the Lakers faced Wilmington. The match was back and forth throughout the entirety of the match. No one could quite pull away from each other. Andrea Zaric had a kill to bring the score to 19-17. Wilmington was able to pull away and take set one 23-21. Set two was a lot of the same as set one, a lot of back and forth from both sides. The Lakers were able to take set two with three straight points by way off Corinne Bechtold, Andrea Zaric, and Kaitlyn Murphy all adding kills to get the win. The match was tied at 1-1.
Set three wasn't close as Wilmington ran away with this one by a score of 25-12. Set four was close all the way through. The score was 20-19 in favor of Wilmington, when the Lakers went on a 6-0 run to win set four 25-20 and tie it all up at 2-2 in the match. Brielle Sterns added a kill, and Kate Hennessy capped off the win with back-to-back kills.
Set five started with a 5-0 run by Wilmington. The Lakers climbed back into the match, tying it up at 12 late in the set. Kaitlyn Murphy, Kate Hennessy, Andrea Zaric, and Mevelyn Brazoban all added kills during the stretch. Wilmington rattled off three straight points and won the set 15-12 and won the match 3-2.
Highlights
Game One: Andrea Zaric finished the game with 17 kills, Alexa Mitchell had 7 service aces, Alexa Mitchell had 41 assists, and Kaitlyn Murphy added 6 blocks.
Game Two: Kate Hennessy finished the game with 17 kills, Alyssa Krause had 3 services aces, Alexa Mitchell had 35 assists, and Katilyn Murphy and Brielle Sterns both added 4 blocks.
Up Next
The Lakers will return to action on Friday, Sep. 8 in Canton, Ohio with matchups against Malone and Frostburg State. The first matchup against Malone will start at 10:00 AM, followed by the Frostburg State matchup at 4:45 PM.
