In a full weekend of games, the West Chester women’s volleyball team split the four matches 2-2, en route to a 6-2 overall record at the end of the week. The stretch began on the road at East Stroudsburg on Tuesday with a five set match, which West Chester eventually pulled out 3-2 to get the victory. At the time, West Chester’s record had improved to 5-0 but more importantly gave the team a win in their first PSAC match-up of the year.For the match, Michelle Powers led all players with 20 kills as Megan Musselman finished second overall with 15. Kyla Beck was third on the team with 13 kills, tying East Stroudsburg’s team leader, Alyson Stark, who had 13 as well. Lisa Campbell had 34 digs and Kyla Beck had 26 to lead the Golden Ram defense. The teams traded sets back and forth; with West Chester winning sets one, three, and the decisive fifth.
The second game of the week was on Friday and was the first of two matches on the day for the ladies of the purple and gold. The early slate ended with a four set win over Millersville which improved the team to 6-0 on the season and bettered their conference record to 2-0. The game was played on the road in the Marauders’ gym in the Millersville Tournament. West Chester took the first set, dropped the second, and then won the last two to secure the match victory.
The week’s third contest was the second of three in the Millersville Tournament for West Chester as they went head to head with Adelphi. The match resulted in the Lady Ram’s first loss of the year, falling to Adelphi in four sets. The team took an early lead, winning the first set 29-27 but dropped the next three consecutively by scores of 19-25, 12-25, and 24-26. The loss dropped the Rams to 6-1 on the season, with their final match of the tournament waiting.
Dowling was the third match in two days for West Chester. For the second straight match, the Lady Rams fell after winning the first set. They took the first 14-25. But Dowling struck back in the next three (20-15, 23-25, 18-25) as they won in four sets. After bowing to Dowling, the Golden Rams record dropped to 6-2 overall on the year but they still remain atop the PSAC Eastern division with a 2-0 conference record, a half game lead over Shippensburg, who is 2.5 games back overall.
Next up for West Chester is a road game against Bloomfield at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. After that match-up, West Chester hosts Ram Fest as UDC and Concordia College (Sept. 12 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. respectively) come to Hollinger Field House followed by Wheeling Jesuit and Holy Family to end the fest, both on Sept. 13 with the games slated for 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. start times respectively. Ram Fest are West Chester’s first home games of the season.
Player of the Week – Michelle Powers added to her monster kill totals to end the week with 56 on the season thus far, as well as ten blocks, both team highs. She is also tied for third on the team with three service aces. The star will finally get to show her power to the home crowd during her sophomore campaign as she and her teammates make their home debut in Ram Fest this week.
Mike Heiman is a fourth-year student majoring in elementary education with a minor in literacy. He can be reached at MH606613@wcupa.edu.