West Liberty, W.Va. – The West Liberty University volleyball team opened the day by fighting back from down two sets to one and winning their fourth 5-set match of the season, defeating Shippensburg 3-2 with set scores of 25-17, 22-25, 19-25, 25-23, and 15-11. The Hilltoppers then ended the weekend by playing Pitt-Johnstown in the eighth and final match of the Atlantic Region Crossover in the ASRC. WLU dropped the match to UPJ 3-1, with set scores of 25-21, 25-22, 18-25, and 25-17 on Saturday evening.
 
QUICK DETAILS
Final Score Game 1: West Liberty 3, Shippensburg 2
Final Score Game 2: West Liberty 1, Pitt-Johnstown 3
Team Records: West Liberty 10-4, Shippensburg 6-5, Pitt-Johnstown 9-2
Attendance: 156 & 131
 
HOW IT HAPPENED VS. SHIPPENSBURG

• Shippensburg opened the match with a 4-2 lead before West Liberty scored three straight points to take their first lead of the set at 5-4. The Raiders responded with a 5-2 run of their own, but the Hilltoppers took control of the opening set with a 12-3 scoring run to take a seven point lead. During the run WLU saw a pair of kills from Leah Driscoll and Katelynn Fritz as well as aces by Dakoda Keni and Nyia Setla. The Black & Gold secured the opening set with four of the last six points and a kill from Page Gross on set point.
• With a back-and-forth opening of the second set, West Liberty was able to build a three point advantage at 9-6 following a kill by Driscoll and ace by Keni. Shippensburg started to build momentum in the frame with a 6-2 scoring run to take their first lead of the set at 12-11. The Hilltoppers briefly regained the lead at 19-17 with a 5-0 rally and kills by Gross, Driscoll, and Hill, however SU took eight of the last 11 points to secure a 25-22 set two win.
• Shippensburg continued to hold the momentum with five consecutive points after West Liberty took the opening point of set three. The Raiders led by as many as five before another 5-1 scoring run from WLU brought the Hilltoppers within one point at 9-8. SU took control of the set by outscoring West Liberty 12-4 midway through the set and held off the Hilltoppers 25-19 for the set win.
• Trailing two sets to one, West Liberty started the comeback early in set four by taking a 9-3 lead before Shippensburg responded with an 11-3 run to take a 14-12 lead midway through the set. The Hilltoppers regained a two point lead at 18-16, following a 6-2 run and an ace by Setla. WLU would not trail following this point and forced the deciding set five with a 25-23 set win on a kill by Driscoll.
• A pair of kills by Driscoll to open set five gave West Liberty the momentum to build a commanding 10-2 lead to open the frame. However, Shippensburg once again rallied to go on an 8-1 scoring run to get back within one point. The Hilltoppers did not trail in the final set and held off the Raiders by taking four of the final five points, with the final two coming on kills by Ashley Cudnik and Grace Hill to win 15-11.
• West Liberty held the narrow advantage in the match with a .178 attack percentage compared to .177 for Shippensburg. The Hilltoppers also held the edge in points (79-69), kills (63-54), blocks (9-7), assists (59-51), and digs (85-83), while the Raiders held the 8-7 advantage in aces.
• Driscoll set a new career-high in the win over the Raiders, notching 19 kills on the attack for the Hilltoppers. She reached double digit kills for the fourth time this season.
• Fritz recorded her sixth double-double of the season and tallied her second game of 10+ kills and 20+ digs on the year with 14 kills and 20 digs in the match against SU.
• After dishing out 49 assists in Tuesday night's match against Malone, Keni bested her season-high by four with 53 assists in the win, reaching the 50 assist mark for the first time in her career and first time for a WLU athlete since 2012. She also posted a season-high of four assists.
• While being one dig shy of her season-high in digs, Setla collected her sixth game of 20 or more digs on the year with 29 in the win. Setla also tied her season-high of three service aces, reaching the mark for the fourth time.
• The Black & Gold improved to 4-1 on the year in 5-set matches with the win.

WEST LIBERTY STATISTICAL LEADERS VS. SHIPPENSBURG
Leah Driscoll: 19 kills, .292 attack percentage, 4 digs, 2 blocks
Katelynn Fritz: 14 kills, .122 attack percentage, 20 digs
Dakoda Keni: 53 assists, 8 digs, 4 service aces, 1 kill
Nyia Setla: 29 digs, 4 assists, 3 service aces
 
HOW IT HAPPENED VS. PITT-JOHNSTOWN

• Pitt-Johnstown opened the match by jumping out to an early 6-3 advantage but a kill by Dakoda Keni was the third consecutive point for WLU to tie the set. After a 3-0 Mountain Cat scoring run to go up 14-10, the teams went back-and-forth with the Hilltoppers keeping the set score within one to three points until UPJ ended the frame by scoring five of the last seven points to win set one 25-21.
• Leah Driscoll and Page Gross combined for a block to give West Liberty the early 5-1 advantage in set two. The Hilltoppers continued to take four of the next six points to push the lead to five at 8-3, however the Mountain Cats went on a 6-2 scoring run to get back within one point. UPJ extended the rally to 11-4 and took a 14-12 lead midway through the set. After trailing by three points the Black & Gold went on a 5-2 run to tie the set at 20 following a kill and block by Grace Hill and a kill by Driscoll. Pitt-Johnstown ended the set with five of the last seven points to win the set 25-22.
• A back-and-forth opening to set three resulted in both teams leading by only two points, until a 6-0 scoring run for West Liberty built themselves a 19-15 lead after four straight attack errors by Pitt-Johnstown. A pair of kills by Fritz helped the Hilltoppers extend their run to 11-1 and grow the lead to 24-16. The Mountain Cats fended off a pair of set point attempts by WLU, but a kill by Fritz put the set away at 25-18 and forced a fourth set.
• Pitt-Johnstown seized control of the fourth set immediately with a 6-1 advantage to open the set. The teams traded the next four points before three straight points by UPJ pushed the lead to seven. Three consecutive points off a kill by Liv McAtee and two kills by Fritz cut the WLU deficit to three points at 14-11, however that would be the closest the Black & Gold would get in the fourth set. UPJ ended the match by scoring seven of the final ten points to win 25-17.
• Pitt-Johnstown held the advantage in the match with a .176 attack percentage compared to a season-low of .096 for West Liberty. The Mountain Cats also held the edge in points (62-52), kills (47-42), aces (8-4), blocks (7-6), and assists (43-40), while the Hilltoppers held the advantage in (65-63).
• Fritz recorded her ninth game of the season with double digit kills, including her sixth in the last seven games. Also, on the Hilltopper attack was Driscoll who notched her fifth game in double digit kills on the year, collecting her fourth in the last five matches.
• Keni tallied her 14^th game with double digit assists on the season and she has reached 30 or more assists in six games. Five of those 30+ assist matches have occurred in the last six matches.
• Selta has reached double digit digs in all 14 matches this year and has totaled 20 or more seven matches, including four of the last five.

WEST LIBERTY STATISTICAL LEADERS VS. PITT-JOHNSTOWN
Katelynn Fritz: 15 kills, .178 attack percentage, 7 digs, 2 service aces
Leah Driscoll: 11 kills, .100 attack percentage, 5 digs, 3 blocks
Dakoda Keni: 35 assists, 9 digs
Nyia Setla: 21 digs, 3 assists
 
UP NEXT
West Liberty enters Mountain East Conference play next Friday as they travel to face Charleston on September22. The Hilltoppers and Golden Eagles are slated for a 7 p.m. first serve in the Wehrle Innovation Center.