Volleyball
Lebanon Valley 3, Elizabethtown 2 (16-25, 25-20, 15-25, 25-14, 15-6)

Box Score

ANNVILLE, Pa. - Lebanon Valley and Elizabethtown have played some classics over the past four years. Tuesday night's Commonwealth Conference opener was more of the same.

Paced by a 19-kill night by Jamie Hawk, the Flying Dutchmen rallied from a 2-1 deficit to win their sixth five-setter of the season, 3-2 (16-25, 25-20, 15-25, 25-14, 15-6), over CC preseason favorite Elizabethtown on Wednesday night.

LVC (7-2) rode superb serving in the final two sets after a rough start to the match, wearing down a Blue Jay (0-7) team that had gone up 2-1 with a decisive 25-15 third-set victory. The win gives LVC an early leg up in the conference standings; LVC and E-town have met in the last four CC finals, with Lebanon Valley being the three-time defending champion.

Hawk's 19 kills continued her great start to the season as she hit .375, and Nicole Barra added seven kills while the freshman trio of Kellsie Groff, Kayla Confer, and Krystal Wirey had seven apiece. Kacey Musselman put up 48 assists with five kills and 12 digs in an all-around effort.

Lindsay Palm led the Jays with 13 kills, hitting .500 for the match. Andrea Weaver had 31 digs, and Carolyn Lukiewski put up 34 assists. The Blue Jays served very well, committing just one error.

After dropping the first set 25-16, LVC bounced back for a 25-20 second-set win before struggling in a 25-15 third-set loss. Things quickly turned around in the fourth, keyed by a seven-point serving run by Angela Kuperavage that turned an 11-10 E-town lead into a 16-11 LVC advantage on the way a 25-14 win.

The fifth set was all LVC after an early 3-0 spurt on Musselman's serve put LVC up 5-2. The Dutchmen hung in with kills by Musselman, Confer, and Wirey to take a 10-6 lead and force a Blue Jay timeout, then finished the match on a 6-0 run with Groff serving and Wirey hitting three kills with a block in that span.

The Dutchmen are back at The Gym Friday to host the LVC Quad starting against Cabrini at 5:30 p.m.