Brandywine Falls On Senior Night

MEDIA, Pa. -- After Penn State Brandywine won in five sets at Penn State Mont Alto in September, Mont Alto evened the season series, winning 3-1 (25-17, 25-22, 15-25, 25-21), at Brandywine Wednesday on Senior Night.

The loss for Brandywine (16-6, 10-2 PSUAC) was its first at home in a conference match since October 18, 2011, a span of 35 matches. The Lions will need to win their final two PSUAC matches at Penn State Schuylkill against the hosts and Penn State DuBois (3:00 & 5:00 pm) on Sunday to secure the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament.

Mont Alto led for nearly the entire first set and put Brandywine away with a kill from Abby Herring. The Lions were in front by as many as six points in set No. 2 and later owned a 22-20 edge, but Mont Alto rallied for the final five points of the set to claim a 2-0 lead.

Brandywine sprinted out to a 6-0 lead in set No. 3 and would push the advantage to nine on two occasions before Nicolette Napoleon (Springfield, Pa./Penn Charter) finished the frame with a kill, forcing a fourth set.

In the fourth set, the teams split the first eight points before Mont Alto rattled off five-straight to build a 9-4 lead. Brandywine fought to within one at 10-9; however, Mont Alto collected six of the next seven points and its lead would not dip below three for the remainder of the set.

Senior Emily Battista (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown) led the way defensively for Brandywine with 20 digs, while classmate Kelsey Zober (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) recorded three digs during the duo's next-to-last regular-season home game of their careers.

Becca Civera (Boothwyn, Pa./Chichester) registered 18 digs along with nine kills, while Rikelle Taylor (Solanco, Pa./Nottingham) tallied five blocks (two solo), Napoleon added four blocks (two solo) and Halee Kusner (Aston, Pa./Sun Valley) registered three.

Kusner also totaled nine kills, while Nikki Poissant (Aston, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) recorded a team-best 14 kills and added 16 digs and three aces. Sullivan Stark (Middletown, Del./William Penn) amassed 33 assists, 14 digs and a pair of blocks.