INDIANA, Pa. – Raimey Benson notched her 1,000th career kill here Saturday as the West Liberty University volleyball team picked up two more impressive wins on the final day of the Quality Inn Crimson Hawk Invitational.
    The surging Hilltoppers (7-1) got things started with a 3-0 victory against Holy Family (Pa.) and followed that up with a hard-fought 3-2 win against a Lake Erie (Ohio) team, snapping the Storm's five-match win streak.
    Benson, a 2-time All-MEC senior from Dublin, Ohio, was charted with 16 combined kills in the two matches to put her at 1,007 kills for her career. Benson's milestone capped a big weekend for the program, coming just 24 hours after head coach Kayla Mull collected her school-record 100th victory.
    West Liberty came out strong against Holy Family in the first match, taking a commanding 2-0 lead with wins of 25-20 and 25-18 in the first two sets. The Pennsylvania squad battled back in the third set but WLU prevailed, 26-24, to complete the sweep.
    Defense was the key as the Hilltoppers were credited with a season-high 13.5 blocks. Madison Clayton and Stephanie Leonard controlled the net with 7 blocks each.
    Leonard tied Benson and Caitlin Clarke for team honors with 7 kills while Kendall Souder and Amanda Leonard finished with 13 and 11 assists, respectively. Kailee Cunningham finished with a team-high 17 digs.
    The Black and Gold got off to another fast start against Lake Erie, taking the first two sets by scores of 25-17 and 25-22, but the Storm refused to fold. Lake Erie won the next two sets, 25-19 and 25-16, to force a winner-take-all fifth set only to see WLU regroup for a convincing 15-7 win.
    Clarke came up big for the Hilltoppers with a match-high 18 kills while Olivia Baumhoer added 13 kills and a pair of blocks. Benson also had 2 blocks to go along with her 9 kills. Souder had a double-double with 25 assists and a dozen digs with Cunningham's 24 digs pacing four Hilltoppers in double-figure digs.
    West Liberty returns to action next weekend when the Hilltoppers host an MEC/PSAC Crossover event on Friday and Saturday at the ASRC.