Mont Alto Comes Up Short in Brandywine

By: Frank Maira, Assistant Director of Athletics/Sports Information Director

Media, Pa. – The Penn State Mont Alto volleyball team held advantages in all three sets, but the Lions fell to Brandywine (25-22, 25-15, 25-20) on Thursday evening. Mont Alto falls to 8-3 overall and 6-2 in the PSUAC.

Mont Alto held a 6-2 lead in the opening set after kills by Alexis Shaffer (Hagerstown, Md. / South Hagerstown), Courtney Mathews (Shippensburg, Pa. / Big Spring) and Courtney Stump (Greencastle, Pa. / Greencastle Antrim). Brandywine responded with a run of its own with teams trading points before the homstanding Lions took a 20-18 lead.  Mont Alto cut the deficit to one on two separate occasions, but succumbed to the Brandywine by a 25-22 score. 

Brandywine carried its momentum into the second set with Mont Alto's only lead occurring after an opening set kill from Courtney Stump (Greencastle, Pa. / Greencastle Antrim).  Brandywine won the set 25-15 with Mont Alto having eight kills, 10 errors on 35 total attacks.

A pair of kills from Schaffer and Hannah Geesaman (Shippensburg, Pa. / St. Maria Goretti) along with a pair of errors from Brandywine gave Mont Alto an early 4-0 advantage in the third set. Brandywine battled back with a 5-0 run with team's eventually coming to a tie at 8 points apiece. Brandywine came out of a timeout and never gave the lead back for the straight-set victory. 

Leading Mont Alto in the loss was Courtney Stump (Greencastle, Pa. / Greencastle Antrim) who had a game-high 11 kills while also serving up a pair of aces and 13 digs. Allison Meyers (Greencastle, Pa. / James Bucannon) had a team-high 16 digs.

Next up, the Lions travel to PSU Dubois on Sunday, October 8 for a quad match with game times of 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. against  PSU Dubois and PSU Schuylkill respectively.