By Kalyn Albers, Staff Writer
Senior outside hitter Morgan Lowe was able to add a total of 13 kills to freshman right setter Sydney Portale in the semifinal round of the Landmark Conference Tournament in Scranton on Wednesday, Nov. 1. That was not enough for the Susquehanna River Hawks Volleyball team as they fell by a 3–2 score to Scranton.
Scranton was able to open play with an 18–13 lead in the middle of the first set. Susquehanna was not able to come back from that deficit. The Royals started with a win in the first scoring a set of 25– 17 grabbing a 1–0 lead.
Susquehanna was able to come back in the second set with a 25–22 win to tie the set score up 1–1.
Late in the third set the River Hawks took the lead with 24–21 late. With the River Hawks on match- point, Scranton responded by scoring three points in a row which resulted in a, 24–24 tie, sending the Royals and the River Hawks to a tie break.
The third-set tiebreaker went back and forth between Scranton and Susquehanna, in the end everything tied up at 27. Scranton completed the comeback with kills by sophomore Victoria Capogna and junior Kristen Kirwan to win the set 29–27.
Susquehanna started strong in the fourth set, as they opened with a 21–11 lead. The River Hawks overall had three different 10-point leads in the set and scored two of the final points ending it with 25–21 sending the match to a decisive fifth set.
In the fifth set, both teams fought to a 6–6 tie in the middle of the set. Scranton then took the opportunity to score three points in a row moving up 9–6. That three- point lead was able to resonate throughout the rest of the set until they opened up a with a quick 13–9 lead.
The River Hawks fought back, scoring three-straight points cutting the Scranton lead to 13–12, but the Royals in the end were able to close out the victory with a 15–12 win in the final set.
Portale had a total of 19 kills and six blocks. Lowe had 13 kills and seven digs. Sophomore Hannah Lyons had a career-high 11 blocks with 12 kills. Senior Julie Kreutzer gave out 47 assists and three aces.
Kreutzer added 14 to sophomore Caroline Beohm’s 22 digs and freshman Lizzie Herestofa was able to add on another 13 digs of her own.
Susquehanna ended the season with a total of 21 wins and was able to reach the 20-win plateau for the fifth season in a row.
Scranton (35–4) advanced in the tournament but ended up losing to Juniata on Saturday, Nov. 4.
Juniata added another Landmark Conference championship, extending their consecutive championship streak to 10 with the win, and still remains the only team in the Landmark Conference to win a conference championship.
The Eagles started off by steamrolling through the first two sets, winning them with a 24-15, 25-16 score.
Scranton managed to fight in the third set but would eventually fall 25-21.
With the win, Juniata now earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, while Scranton had to hope for an at-large bid thanks to a 35-5 finish in 2017, a program record for the Royals.
On Monday, the tournament committee gave out their at-large bids and left out Scranton, while Juniata is set to play Brockport on Nov. 10 at 12:30 p.m. Brockport finished the season 26-8 and a perfect 9-0 in conference play. They currently are riding a 11-game win streak into the matchup with the Eagles.
Congratulations to Susquehanna Volleyball on another 20-win season!
