Everybody remembers the firsts in their life and firsts can be so sweet. So it was for the Golden Eagles volleyball team who not only won their first set of the season on Friday, but more importantly won their first match of the season---a 3-1 decision over visiting Penn State New Kensington. Even sweeter was the fact that KSU Tusc served up 17 service aces in the victory.
The Eagles got off to a strong start before wavering in the middle matches and finally regaining their foothold in the fourth set winning 25-18, 22-25, 25-20, 25-16.
With the scored tied 12-12 in the opener, the Navy and Gold ripped off four straight points to take a 16-12 lead before the Nittany Lions got off the mat with four consecutive tallies of their own. Then the Eagles took command of the match and closed out the scoring with the last seven points before winning on a service error.The second set was back and forth again with 12 lead changes. With the score 22-22, this time it was the Lions who took over, ending the set with the final three points to tie the match at 1-1 for a 25-22 win.
After the second set loss the Golden Eagles seemed to get grounded as they fell behind 8-0. Trailing 14-7, they chipped away at the PSNK lead and forged a tie at 16-16 before gathering themselves and racing ahead 21-16. The closest the Lions got was 22-19 as the Eagles pulled out a 25-20 victory.
In the fourth and final set the Lions grabbed an early 7-3 lead, but with talons deployed the Eagles scratched their way back to tie things at 12-12. They advanced their lead to 15-12 and pushed the advantage to 20-15 and sealed their first match victory on the season with a 25-16 fourth set win.
Mya Blochlinger led the way for the Golden Eagles with 14 kills, seven service aces, nine solo blocks and seven digs. Corinne Sanders added six kills to go along with seven assists and Lindsey Seibert had four kills, nine assists and three dig. Playing in her first match of the season, Alexis Zehnder was strong in the back row with nine digs and also contributed three aces. Alyssa Hughes was money at the service line with four aces and scoring 20 points on the afternoon.
On Saturday, the Golden Eagles travel to Penn State Shenango for a 12 p.m. dual match.