Women's Volleyball opens season at USCAA Tip Off Tournament

Elizabeth, PA -- The Penn State Beaver Lady Lions opened the 2013 season at the USCAA Tip-Off Tournament hosted by Greater Allegheny. In their first match of the day, facing LaRoche College, Beaver got off to a slow start with only 3 kills in the first two sets. In their third set of the match, despite taking the loss, the team started to come together and ended that set with an additional 9 kills. Beaver served exceptionally well that match, only committing one service error.

In their 3:00 PM game they faced off against PSUAC rival Greater Allegheny. After dropping the first two sets by just two points each time, Beaver turned their game around in the third set and never looked back. They won the next three sets convincingly by scores of 25-14, 25-17 and 15-8 to give them their first win of the season. Leading the offense was freshman setter, Brittany Davids (Beaver Falls, PA/Blackhawk) dishing sets to juniors Natalie Gamble (McKees Rocks, PA/Sto-Rox) and Kayona Ward (Beaver Falls, PA/Beaver Falls) and freshman Madeline Hill (Monaca, PA/Central Valley) who all hit very well in the match.

In the third match of the afternoon, Beaver faced Clark State Community College. Clark State, a very disciplined and fundamentally sound program looked like they would be a big challenge for Beaver in the first set as Beaver fell by a score of 25-8. In the second and third sets, Beaver turned things around and played a well rounded game as their blocking improved to help them compete with the solid offense run by Clark State. Gamble, Ward and Hill all had good defensive sets at the net to help Beaver be competitive despite losing the match 3-0.

Rochester College was the final opponent of the day for Beaver and won the match by a score of 3-0.

Beaver is back in action tomorrow morning for the second day of play in the tip off tournament where they face Southern State Community College at 9:00am.