FREDERICK, Md. – The Hood College women's volleyball team suffered their first loss to Penn State Mont Alto, falling 3-2 in a non-conference match.
Set Scores
The Nittany Lions won 16-25, 25-22, 24-26, 25-18, 15-8.
Inside the Box Score
Ann Ofoegbu (Falling Waters, W.Va./Spring Mills) led the team with 20 kills.
Jackie Malitzki (Allentown, Pa./Parkland) and
Madison Powell (Midlothian, Va./Manchester) racked up four service aces, with Malitzki leading the Blazers with 24 assists.
Molly McGraw (Forest Hill, Md./Concordia Prep) finished the night with 25 digs.
How it Happened
Hood dominated the first set, jumping out to a 12-4 lead and never looking back, generally keeping a 10-point lead before PSU Mont Alto managed to pull it to single digits just before an ace from Powell gave the Blazers a 1-0 match lead.
The second set was much more contested, with neither team able to get ahead enough to take control. With both teams knotted at 15, the Nittany Lions managed to put together a 5-2 run to put the Blazers in a bit of a bad situation. Despite managing to come back and tie the set at 22-22, PSU Mont Alto scored the next three points to tie the match.
Set three started off similarly to the previous, but the Nittany Lions began to pull away and build up a 19-15 advantage as they looked to take control of the match before Ofoegbu led a Blazers' 7-1 charge to storm back in front. Despite getting one point away at 24-21, PSU Mont Alto crawled back to force overtime, but two quick points gave the win and the match lead back to Hood.
Even though the fourth set started off close with the Nittany Lions holding an 8-7 lead, nine straight points for them would give them control, and a late comeback attempt from the Blazers was stopped short as both squads were clearly destined to go the whole five sets.
Just like the last three sets, the match-decider did not have anyone in control, as each squad started things off with a three-point run. The teams switched sides with PSU Mont Alto getting to eight points first, but
Cam Madden's (Carlisle, Pa./Big Spring) kill to knock Hood's disadvantage down to 10-8 would be the closest they would get, as the Nittany Lions took the next five points to hand the Blazers the loss.
For the Opponent
Gracie Vaughn and Leslie Huckle had 16 kills.
Ashlyn Vandenbree ended the evening with 36 digs.
Up Next
Hood heads to Chester, Pennsylvania for their second conference match of the season against Widener Tuesday, October 1 at 7 p.m.
