McKeesport, PA. – The Penn State Greater Allegheny Volleyball team (16-7, 7-2) can do no wrong as of late as they pushed their season-long win streak to 13 games defeating Butler County Community College (14-3, 9-0) on Monday night 3-0. Two of PSUGA’s top attackers combined for 25 kills as the offense kept rolling in the win.
Fresh off clinching their first playoff spot in five seasons, PSUGA got off to a hot start in this one scoring six of the first eight points to take a 6-2 set one lead. However, Butler County CC fought back and tied things at 18-18 late in the set forcing PSUGA to battle. Alix Ellis (Derry, PA./Derry Area HS) made sure that PSUGA held on to the lead and recorded the set winning kill in a 25-22 set one win.
With GA already ahead 1-0 in the match, they came out and kept their foot on the gas in set two rallying for 12-6 lead early in the set. Butler County CC would get as close as 20-15 before PSUGA broke through scoring five of the final seven points and taking a 2-0 lead with a 25-16 win. PSUGA has not picked up a sweep since their October 5th game with PSU-Mont Alto, and were looking to do just that on Monday night.
It looked like Butler County CC was going to give PSUGA a run for their money when they jumped out to a 6-4 lead to start set three. However, PSUGA kept crawling their way back into the set and two separate 3-0 runs got them ahead 15-12. They would never give up the lead from there closing out the 25-21 set three win and picked up their 13th straight win with the sweep.
Ellis and teammate Sueriah Timsah (Mesquite, TX./West Mesquite HS) were on fire throughout the night registering a combined 25 kills. Ellis led the way with 13 on the day while Timsah finished right behind her with 12. Juliana Brill (Mount Jackson, Va./Stonewall Jackson HS) added a team high 20 digs on the day and Andrea Ghiloni (Granville, OH./Granville HS) led the way with 32 assists on the day. Ghiloni needs just 30 kills to tie the single-season assist record of 537 set by Adrielle Brisbon in 2014.
PSUGA now turns its attention to one of its biggest match-ups of the year when they take on Penn State Beaver on Tuesday. If PSUGA can win their final three non-conference games, they would be the #1 seed in the Penn State University Athletic Conference playoff race for the first time in program history. However, head coach Alyssa Finocchi and her team are focusing on one game at a time as they try to earn a home playoff game in the first-round.
PSUGA will go on the road to take on Beaver in Monaca, PA. tomorrow with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m.
