Brandywine Advances To Third-Straight PSUAC Title Match

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Top-seeded Penn State Brandywine is back in the PSUAC Volleyball Championship for the third consecutive season after defeating No. 4 Penn State Beaver 3-0 (25-13, 25-20, 25-13) on Saturday afternoon in the conference semifinals at Penn State's Rec Hall.

The Lions (19-3) will face Penn State Fayette for the PSUAC crown on Sunday afternoon at 12:00 pm. Brandywine is in search of the program's first-ever league title after dropping championship matches to Fayette each of the last two seasons.

Miranda Biondi (Newtown Square, Pa./Marple Newtown), named PSUAC Player of the Year and first team all-conference earlier in the day, registered 29 assists and 16 digs to lead Brandywine back to the title game.

Biondi, now a four-time first team performer, was joined on the all-PSUAC first team by fellow senior Nicole Costa (Lansdowne, Pa./Upper Darby) and sophomore Nikki Poissant (Aston, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara), while senior Kim Russo (West Chester, Pa./West Chester East) earned second team recognition.

Freshman Halee Kusner (Aston, Pa./Sun Valley) also received accolades as she was selected as the conference's newcomer of the year.

Kusner paced Brandywine with 13 kills on Saturday afternoon, while Poissant tallied 12 and Costa and Molly Nichols (Lenni, Pa./Penncrest) both recorded five. Russo led all players with a season-high 23 digs and Poissant added 12, while Kelsi Wiest (Aston, Pa./Sun Valley) recorded 14.

Brandywine used a run of five-straight kills, including three from Kusner, to build a 9-3 lead during the first set. The Lions led by nine later in the frame, but Beaver answered with three consecutive points; however, Brandywine closed out the set with the final five points, capped off by Emily Battista's (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown) ace.

The Lions' lead was 19-10 during the second frame when Beaver put forth its best answer of the day, tallying eight consecutive points to cut the Brandywine lead to one. Kusner ended Beaver's run with a kill and Russo sent the momentum back to Brandywine with aces on three consecutive serves.

The first 18 points of the third set were nearly even before Brandywine pulled away, using kills from Kusner and Kirsten Jerla (Springfield, Pa./Notre Dame) during a 5-0 run and the Lions would cruise through the rest of the set and into the championship match.

Brandywine upped its winning streak to 12 matches, with all 12 triumphs coming in three sets. The Lions can earn the PSUAC's automatic bid to the USCAA Tournament with a victory Sunday.