McKeesport, PA. – With the regular season officially in the books, the road to State College begins and the Penn State Greater Allegheny Volleyball team (18-9, 8-4) looks for their first Penn State University Athletic Conference (PSUAC) Championship in program history. They kick off their journey with a first-round match-up against Penn State Beaver (17-9, 8-4) on Thursday at 7 p.m.
PSUGA is returning to the PSUAC playoffs for the first time since the 2014 season and the first time under the leadership of head coach Alyssa Finocchi. PSUGA enters the tournament having won three of their last five matches and 13 of their last 15 matches. After a rough start to the season that saw them go just 3-7 in their first ten games, PSUGA went on a 13-game winning streak to move to 16-7 overall and clinch their playoff berth. They would be locked into the #3 seed after back-to-back losses to PSU-Fayette and PSU-Beaver, but rebounded winning their final two games of the season.
Last time out, they picked up their 11th sweep of the season when they defeated Penn State New Kensington 3-0. New Kensington gave PSUGA a battle in the first set with GA coming out on top 25-23; however, PSUGA’s defense tightened up over the final two sets allowing no more then 13 points in either set on their way to the sweep.
It was the defense that got the job done over the final two sets with Angelina Alpirez (San Jacinto, CA./San Jacinto HS) leading the way with 23 digs. Sueriah Timsah (Mesquite, TX./West Mesquite HS) followed her with 18 digs of her own while leading the offense with 14 kills on the night. Alix Ellis (Derry, PA./Derry Area HS) was the other PSUGA attacker to finish in double digits with 12 kills in the win.
When PSUGA made the playoffs in 2014, their journey to State College started with a road match-up against PSU-Beaver that they won 3-0. From there, they headed to State College for the semifinal round where they met PSU-Fayette and fell 3-0. This season, they will also start their journey on the road at Beaver and are hoping to move to the next round as they did in 2014.
PSU-Beaver presents no easy task. Priscilla Medal led the Beaver offense with five kills as they finished the regular season 8-4. They put up a record of 5-2 in their last seven conference games and are seated #2 in the tournament, holding the tie breaker over PSUGA. They dropped their regular season finale to PSU-Fayette 3-0 and enter the playoffs with a bad taste in their mouths.
Previous Match-ups
In 23 previous match-ups with Beaver, PSUGA has a record of 4-19; however, PSUGA owns the only playoff win in the all-time series. They defeated Beaver 3-0 in the first-round of 2014 playoffs, former Lion, and current head coach, Alyssa Finocchi led the way with 14 kills while Christina Floyd added 12 in the win that advanced them to the final four.
Tip-off for Thursday’s first-round match-up is scheduled for 7 p.m. inside the PSU-Beaver Gym. There will be a live stream available for the game on the PSU-Beaver YouTube page.
