Box Score
ANNVILLE, Pa. – Junior Natalie Goodfellow drilled a match-high 18 kills, leading the second-seeded Lebanon Valley College volleyball team to a 3-0 sweep of third-seeded Elizabethtown College in a Commonwealth Conference semifinal match Wednesday evening in the LVC Gymnasium.
Lebanon Valley (26-5) earned its first-ever Commonwealth Conference playoff victory and will now advance to the conference championship match for the first time in program history. LVC will visit top-seeded and No. 2-ranked Juniata College in the Commonwealth Conference championship on Saturday at a time to be announced. The Eagles defeated fourth-seeded Moravian College 3-0 in the other semifinal.
Elizabethtown (17-15) was paced by sophomore Kelly Downs, who had 12 kills.
In the first game, Lebanon Valley led by as much as six (11-5), but E-town hung around and trailed by only three (18-15) midway through the set. But a 6-0 LVC surge opened up a nine-point lead and the Valley went on to win 30-20.
The second game was more of the same, with LVC maintaining a slight edge before breaking it open with a run halfway through the match. The Blue Jays trailed 21-18 before a 5-1 Valley spurt made it 26-19. LVC's lead would not dip below five the rest of the way en route to a 30-23 win.
Lebanon Valley used another mini-run to open up some breathing room in the third and final game. With the scoreboard reading 13-13, LVC reeled off five straight points, and the Valley led by at least four over the remainder of the game, a 30-25 win.
Goodfellow, who had a career-high 26 kills in LVC's regular season match against E-town earlier this season, made only four errors on 37 attempts for a .378 hitting night. She also moved to within four kills of becoming the fourth player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills.
Senior Lexi Horstman added 16 kills and three blocks for the Valley while senior Cat Roth had 46 assists and 12 digs. Senior Katie Ferree and freshman Erin Yost had 22 and 16 digs, respectively, while freshman Brandi Roth had four aces.
[Photo - Junior Natalie Goodfellow, who had 18 kills in Lebanon Valley's 3-0 Commonwealth Conference semifinal win over Elizabethown on Wednesday]
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