The Golden Eagles Volleyball Team finished 1-2 in the USCAA Volleyball Tip-Off held at Penn State Beaver in Monaca, PA on Friday and Saturday. The Eagles lost a tough opening match to NAIA power Florida National University on Friday, but bounced back on Saturday to beat Penn State DuBois before falling in their final match of the tournament to Penn State Mont Alto.

After falling 3-0 to the Conquistadors pool play, the Navy and Gold got their first win of the season 3-1 over DuBois in a four-set win. KSU Tusc started fast winning the opening set 25-18, before dropping the second 18-25. However, they rallied winning hard fought 25-21 and 25-23 third and fourth sets to secure their first win of the season. Freshman Mya Blochlinger had 14 kills and sophomore Morgain Little added eight, and Blochlinger and Ciera Roming both served up six service aces of the Eagles team total of 23 for the game. The winners also recorded 26 assists with junior Karlee Peach contributing the bulk of them with 20.

With the early Saturday morning win, the Golden Eagles secured the second seed in pool 'C' and advanced to an early afternoon match versus Mont Alto the two-seed in pool 'D'. The Nittany Lions roared to a 25-14 win in the opening set of the four-game match, but KSU came back to win the second set 25-22. The third set was also a real battle as the two teams went to overtime with PSU eventually prevailing 27-29 and going on to win the final set 20-25. Blochlinger continued her dominant early season play with 21 kills and three service aces, while Little added six kills and eight blocks.

The Golden Eagles will be back in action on September 5th when they travel to Carlow Univeristy in Pittsburgh, PA.

 Morgain Little sends the ball back over the net.

Jamie Myers digs the ball.                                            (Photos by Shilo Moore Little)