The Shippensburg University volleyball team is set to return to the court after their 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2019 season the Raiders had a very successful regular season, going 26-7 and hosting Clarion University in the first round of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) tournament.

After defeating the Eagles in the first round, SU would fall in the second round of the tournament to the East Stroudsburg University (ESU) Warriors. The Raiders also lost in the first round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament to ESU, ending their season.

Shippensburg was recently voted third in the 2021 PSAC preseason volleyball poll. The team sits behind PSAC rivals Shepherd and Millersville University. The Raiders received two first place votes in the poll.

Entering her 18th season as the head coach of the Raiders is Leanne Piscotty. Piscotty is the winningest coach in Shippensburg University history with a winning percentage of .637. She is a four-time PSAC Eastern Division Coach of the year and was also named the 2015 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Atlantic Region Coach of the Year.

This season the Raiders also added assistant coach Xiomara Ortiz this past spring. Ortiz was previously the assistant coach at Lehigh University.  

SU will return 12 players from the 2020 season, but only six of those players were also on the 2019 roster. One of those returning players is junior right-side Joelle Schultz. Schultz played in four matches during the 2019 season and she recorded one kill in those four matches adding to her career total of five. 

On Aug. 2 Shippensburg announced their recruiting class featuring eight new players that will be joining the team this season. Along with the new recruits the Raiders are also adding a defensive specialist, Alex Leitner. Leitner is a redshirt-sophomore who transferred to Shippensburg from Niagara University in New York. Leitner played in 14 sets during the 2021 season and averaged 1.4 digs per set and had 20 digs.

The Raiders will start the 2021 season on Thursday September 2 against Clarion University at the Tony Banner Memorial Tournament. The Raiders will also face off against Adelphi University, University of New Haven and Ursuline College as part of the Tony Banner Memorial Volleyball Tournament.  

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