“We prepare for each team the same way, regardless of their record.” That’s what West Chester women’s Head Coach Kassie Bellaver said prior to her teams match up with Holy Family University last Wednesday.
Going into the match, Holy Family had not yet won a game. That being said, West Chester was determined to keep it that way and at the same time improve their record to an unblemished 9-0.
Despite not winning a game all year, Holy Family came out firing and at one point led the Lady Rams 10-9, early. West Chester would soon tie the score at 10 and go on to win the game 30-24 and just never really looked back from there. The second game wasn’t nearly as close with West Chester winning 30-10. The third game wasn’t much different with West Chester winning 30-15. In that game first-year student Michelle Powers served 16 straight points scoring 16 straight points for Westchester.
“I just kept serving, I didn’t pay attention to the score,” Powers said after the game.
Before the game, fourth-year player outside hitter Kristen Decker was honored for getting her 1000th kill vs. Edinboro on a week prior.
On Sept. 7th, West Chester opened the WCU tournament against Goldey Beacom. West Chester won the first game 30-10, the second game 30-9, and completed the sweep by taking the third game 30-12 and therefore taking the match to improve to 10-0.
Later that night, the Lady Rams were back on the floor for an 8 p.m. match up vs. Nyack. West Chester came out on a rampage winning the first game 30-8. The second game was even more lopsided with the Lady Rams winning 30-7. The third and final game was more competitive however, West Chester winning by a margin of 14 with mainly backups. They took the match to improve to 11 straight wins.
Fourteen hours later the Lady Rams were again back on the floor for a 10 a.m. match up against Goldey Beacom to open day two of the tournament. The entire game was pretty much all West Chester.
West Chester came out strong taking game one 30-10. The margin of victory in game two was slightly larger with Westchester winning by a margin of 30-9. The Lady Rams went on to take game three 30-12 and in doing so became 12-0 for the season.
The teams golden week wouldn’t end just yet, though. They had one more match in the tournament at 4 p.m. against Nyack. Both West Chester and Nyack came out strong in game one. At first it was a back and forth contest with West Chester ultimately prevailing 30-20. In the second game Nyack refused to roll over but still were unable to withstand the Lady Rams onslaught as West Chester won by a margin of 11. In the third and final game of the match, West Chester pulled away with a 30-14 victory to ultimately increase their record to 13-0 on the season and win their home tournamnet.
Head Coach Kassie Bellavers said after the game, “We’ve set the standard for ourselves, we just need to keep it rolling, and I feel if we continue to play this way we’ll be unstoppable.”
It was a truly golden week for the Lady Rams. Not only did they pick up five wins to improve to 13-0, they outscored there opponents 450 to 205.
For her efforts Kirsten Decker was named PSAC player of the week.
“It’s an excellent way to start off senior year, it was especially special for me to get my 1000th kill against Edinboro because it was the first time the seniors beat a PSAC west team,” Decker said.
The Lady Rams take on East Stroudsburg at home this Tuesday at 7 p.m. They then travel to Felican on Thursday and Kutztown on Saturday for 7 p.m and 11 a.m. match ups respectively.
The Saturday match up against Kutztown should prove to be interesting as until earlier last week Kutztown was also undefeated. But as of right now, the only undefeated team is the Golden Rams.
Dan Donahue is a first-year student. He can be reached at DD641211@wcupa.edu