GRANTHAM, Pa. – The Susquehanna volleyball team split its two matches at Saturday's Old Friends Crossover Tournament hosted at Messiah College, beating Arcadia 3-0 before falling to Messiah in five sets.
SU had little trouble dispatching Arcadia, beating the Knights 25-14, 25-17, 25-11. Kady Faller (Reading, Pa./Exeter Township) finished the match with 11 kills and only three errors while Leana Carvin (Walnutport, Pa./Northampton Area), Nickey Sanders (Chambersburg, Pa./Chambersburg Area) and Jessica Holm each added five kills.
Freshman Julie Kreutzer (Flemington, N.J./Hunterdon Central Regional) continued to impress in a starting role with 28 assists and three of the team's six service aces. Alyssa Chiodo (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn) recorded a team-high 18 digs and Sarah Paluck (Nesquehoning, Pa./Tamaqua Area) chipped in 13.
The second match of the afternoon was settled in much more dramatic fashion, but unfortunately not in the favor of the Crusaders as the Falcons claimed a 27-29, 16-25, 25-18, 26-24, 15-11 win.
Susquehanna took the first two sets and were especially impressive in the latter, recording a team attack percentage of .424 with 15 kills and only one error in 33 attempts. Looking to end the match in the third, SU hung tight with Messiah until 7-7 when the hosts won 11 of the next 12 points to effectively put the game out of reach.
Set number four looked to be going in the Crusaders' favor as they led 18-11 and held serve, but Messiah won four of the next five points to close the gap. Soon after, with SU leading 21-17, the Falcons took four straight points to even things up. In the end, Messiah was able to take the game and push the match to five.
The Falcons continued their momentum into the fifth and opened up a 4-0 lead before Susquehanna could respond. Although the Crusaders later won four consecutive points of their own to trail only 9-12, Messiah held them off to win set and match.
Morgan Whiteman (Camp Hill, Pa./Trinity) finished with a match-high 22 kills, while Marykate Sherkness (Treskow, Pa /Marian Catholic) struck 16 and Erin Byrne (San Diego, Calif./Scripps Ranch) tallied 15. Kreutzer added 51 more assists to her total and five players finished with double-digit digs for SU: Paluck (33), Byrne (20), Chiodo (16), Kreutzer (15), and Corinne Eidle (Reading, Pa./Wyomissing Area) (13).
With the regular season concluded, the Crusaders now look ahead to Nov. 4 when they host the University of Scranton in the Landmark Conference Semifinals at 7 p.m. in Houts Gymnasium.
