Box Score

OWINGS MILLS, Md. – The Lycoming College volleyball team hung tough with top-seeded Stevenson University during the first two sets, but Stevenson was able to post a 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-14) win to advance to the championship match of the Commonwealth Conference Playoffs on Friday, Nov. 2, at the Owings Mills Gymnasium.
 
The fourth-seeded Warriors finished the season 22-13 overall, the most wins for the program since 2003. It was also the team’s first winning season since the 2006 squad went 18-16.
 
Freshman Bethany Richardson (York, Pa./West York Area) and junior Chelsee Strine (South Boardman, Mich./Forest Area) led the Warriors with six kills and junior Shelby Gear (Rochester, N.Y./Gates-Chili) added five. Junior Katelyn McKillop (Mount Pocono, Pa./Pocono Mountain West) notched 23 assists and five digs sophomore libero Kristin Whitehead (Avon, Ohio/Avon) added 17 digs. Strine also notched 11 digs. Sophomore Kylee Sutton (Wysox, Pa./Towanda Area) and McKillop each posted two blocks.
 
Avery Gabbard led the Mustangs (34-2 overall) with 16 kills and nine digs and both Christine Isenberg and Megan Miller posted eight kills. Isenberg also notched 13 digs and Samantha Perillo posted 17. Kristen Lubeski notched five blocks and Jessica Gieselman posted 39 assists, two aces and seven digs.
 
The Warriors got out to a fast start in the first set, taking a 7-4 lead after a Sutton kill, but the Mustangs fought back to tie it at eight and neither team got more than a two point advantage until a pair of Gabbard kills made it 22-20 in favor of Stevenson, as it went on to a 25-21 win.
 
In the second set, the teams fought to a tie at nine before Stevenson went on a 10-4 run to take control in the 25-17 win. Once again, in the third set, the Warriors stayed close in the early part of the set, closing within a point at 9-8, but Stevenson used a 16-6 run to close out the win.
 
McKillop finished the year fifth in school history with 1,126 assists and tied for eighth with 56 aces. She became the second player in school history to reach 3,000 career assists against Stevenson, finishing the game with 3,114.
 
Whitehead finished with 612 digs, the fourth-most in school history, and she finished the match against Stevenson with 1,001 career kills, becoming the 11^th player in program history to reach the 1,000-dig mark.