GRANTHAM, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley volleyball responded to a tough 3-1 defeat at the hands of host Messiah University with a dominating 3-0 victory over Rosemont College to split their Saturday tri-match in Grantham.
 
Game 1 at Messiah
The Dutchmen (9-5) and Falcons (10-5) battled back and forth throughout the first set with neither team able to gain a sizable advantage. Messiah took an 11-7 lead after three straight points, but the Dutchmen battled their way back to a 14-13 deficit after back-to-back blocks by Robyn Stepler and Teaguen Reynolds. The Falcons responded with three consecutive points of their own to take a 19-14 advantage and took the set 25-18.
 
The Falcons continued the strong play into the second set and jumped out to a 6-1 lead. LVC fought back and closed the gap to 7-5. After trading points, Messiah was able to go on a rally of three straight points to take a 16-10 advantage enroute to winning the set 25-17. The beginning of the third set began the same way as the second with Messiah holding an 8-1 advantage. The Dutchmen won seven of the next eight points to cut the lead to 9-8. LVC was able to take their first lead of the set behind back-to-back kills by Taylor McInerney to make it 15-14 in favor of the Dutchmen. The Falcons retaliated with four straight points before LVC had two consecutive kills by Kelli Heffer and an attack error by Messiah to make it 18-all. Messiah held match point at 24-23 but the Dutchmen finished strong with five of the final six points to extend the match to a fourth set.
 
The teams battled back and forth to begin the fourth set and Messiah until Messiah used a eight-point swing to turn a 5-4 set into 13-4. The Dutchmen fought back valiantly and cut the lead to 14-10 but that was as close as they would come with Messiah taking the set 25-16.
 
Inside the Box

• McInerney finished with 23 kills and nine digs.
• Kasey Thomas had a great defensive match with a season-high 26 digs.
• Sofia Okronley had 22 assists and eight digs in two sets while Stepler had 17 assists, two block assists, and a service ace in three sets.
• Reynolds had six total blocks and four digs with three kills.
• Abigail Souder recorded three service aces while Heffer finished with six kills.

 
Game 2 vs. Rosemont
The Dutchmen (10-5) responded with a quick 25-9, 25-10, 25-8 victory over Rosemont in their second match of the day. LVC scored the first seven points of the match and 12 of the first 13 to build a 12-1 advantage. The lead blossomed to 16-3 behind a pair of kills from McInerney and a service ace by Thomas. The Dutchmen hit an outstanding 44 percent in the first set.
 
The Ravens scored the first two points of the second set before LVC rattled off nine straight to take a 9-2 lead with Thomas serving. The lead increased to 16-3 behind three aces from Okronley and three kills by McInerney. The Dutchmen took advantage of a few service errors and ball handling errors to build their lead up to 21-7 before finishing the set at 25-10. The third set was close at the beginning as the Ravens were within one point at 6-5 before LVC used a huge rally with Lyla Arfanella serving to go up 20-6.
 
Inside the Box

• LVC had a season-high 16 service aces. Souder and Okronley had four each while Thomas and Arfanella recorded three apiece.
• Arfanella led the team with 11 kills and nine digs. Thomas also recorded nine digs.
• McInerney had nine kills while playing jut two sets and had a 31.3 hitting percentage.
• Margaret Cole hit a team-high .556 with five kills on nine attacks.
• Stepler had 15 assists while Okronley added nine.

 
Up Next
The Dutchmen have a big conference match on Wednesday as they welcome DeSales University to Sorrentino Gymnasium for a 7 p.m. start.

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