The Lady Rams volleyball team avenged the weekends three game slide in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference crossover tournament with two solid victories this week, led by senior Kristen Decker and freshman sensation Michelle Powers. Tuesday night brought with it a match-up against the conference rival, the Millersville Lady Marauders. Although Millersville played very well in the match, Decker and the Lady Rams were just too much in the end, taking three out of the four games.
Teamwork played a big part in this match. “We passed the ball very well as a team and that was a major contributing factor in the win,” stated coach Kassie Bellaver.
Decker eclipsed the 20 kill mark for the third time this year, moving her over 300 for the season. She also notched 22 digs and five aces. Senior Jaqui Vivanco recorded 24 digs while Powers slammed down nine kills to lead West Chester over Millersville.
Lisa Yeasted also played a major role in the game gathering 44 assists. Millersville had an extremely good blocker, but Yeasted was able to counter this by keeping the ball moving around the court.
The win put the girls above the five hundred mark at 3-2 in the PSAC East Conference, they find themselves in third place behind Shippensburg (19-6)(5-0) and Kutztown (19-3)(4-1).
Thursday night brought the same dominating force on the court, led by freshman Michelle Powers. The girls took on the non-league, out-of-state squad from Goldey Beacom (2-12) and steam rolled their way to three consecutive victories, holding the opponents to under 20 points in all three contests.
Goldey Beacom fought hard, keeping it even in the beginning of all three contests before the Lady Rams ran away with runs of six points in the first match, a 15-2 run in the second, and a surge in the third leading to a 30-15 victory.
Powers was the leader for West Chester in this game. Coach Bellaver considers her one of the go to girls whom she depends on from match to match, as well as a very important part of their offense.
With the win Thursday night, WCU surpassed the mark set last year of 18 victories, scoring their 19th win of the season. With 14 games yet to play in the season, it seems inconceivable that the girls won’t break the 20-victory plateau this year. It would only be the fifth time in the Golden Rams’ history that they would break that mark.
Tuesday night brings another all important conference game, as the girls will be heading to East Stroudsburg for a seven o’clock game. After that contest the Lady Rams do not play another conference game on the road in the regular season.
The Lady Rams sit two games back of first play in the PSAC East with five games to play
Ryan Frisco is a first year student majoring in Communication Studies. He can be reached at RF648257@wcupa.edu
** In last week’s issue, The Quad mistakenly printed the Lady Rams record as 2-5 in PSAC East play. Erroneously, we failed to realize that the games in question were non-conference games, as they took place in a crossover tournament between Western Division teams. The Lady Rams are now 3-2 in conference play after this week and third in the PSAC East.