Volleyball loses to East Stroudsburg in PSAC quarterfinals

The Shippensburg University volleyball team fell in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Quarterfinals to strong-serving East Stroudsburg University in Heiges Field House on Wednesday.

The Raiders were bested by ESU for most of the game and only had a couple runs to rally back.

The first set started with strong serves from ESU that Shippensburg struggled with for the whole game. The Warriors took an 8-2 lead. The Raiders rallied from 19-9 to make it 19-14, but were not able to start another run, so the Warriors took the set with 25-18.

In the second set, the Raiders took a 2-0 lead, but shortly after an 18-2 run by ESU thanks to their strong serves made it 22-8. SU did not give up and fought for a 9-1 run to make the set closer, but then lost the second set 17-25 to the Warriors.

The Raiders had a strong start into the third set and led 5-0 early. After a tie at 7-7, ESU took the lead 8-7 and then extended their lead to 14-10. SU fought back and was only behind by 2. At 18-19, Shippensburg was close to tying the set, but instead ESU had a 4-1 run to earn match points. The Raiders defended one match point, but finally lost the set 20-25.

In the game, Shippensburg had 27 attack errors and struggled with their passing game. East Stroudsburg served nine aces and their serves were often the cause for the Raiders´ struggles.

Senior Rachel Verhoef, who played her last collegiate game, totaled six kills and four blocks. Sophomore Kat Negron was the team-leader in kills with seven and had 13 digs. Senior Oyinda Agbale, also playing her last game, added five kills and six block assists, and freshman Kearstin Davis led the team in assists with 20 and equaled Negron´s team high of 13 digs.

Shippensburg finished its season with an 18-12 overall, and a 10-4 PSAC East record. They earned the No.2 seed in the East Division and had their first appearance in the playoffs since 2019.

On Thursday, three players of the team received 2022 All-PSAC Team honors. The middle blockers Verhoef and Agbale were both named to the All-PSAC First Team, and setter Davis was named to the All-PSAC Second Team. With that, SU extended its streak to have at least two players being named to the All-PSAC Teams to 19 consecutive seasons.