Still undefeated, the Slippery Rock University volleyball team again swept all four opponents they faced this past weekend to improve their overall record to 8-0.
The team participated in the PSAC/MEC crossover weekend, in which they defeated West Virginia State and Urbana on Friday, followed by Notre Dame College and the University of Charleston on Saturday.
This is Slippery Rock’s best start since 2011, the last time the team made the NCAA postseason tournament.
Slippery Rock had a lot of key contributors all over the court, and had three players move in to the top five in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) statistical leaders categories.
One of those statistical leaders, senior defensive specialist Courtney Oberlander, had a monster defensive weekend. Her 97 digs pushed her up to second in the PSAC. Oberlander already owns the single- season SRU record for digs (648 last season), and is quickly up to 158 digs through eight games, priming her to break her own record throughout the season this year. Oberlander also had the third-most assists over the weekend with 23.
Sophomore setter Zoe Rivet was again a statistical leader for the Green and White, providing the most assists with 68. Rivet also added 33 digs to her defensive utility, while also making strides on offense with three aces.
While she didn’t lead the Rock in any singular category, senior setter Haley Defibaugh was a huge piece in all four Rock wins over the weekend. She nearly edged out Rivet in assists with 66, and also provided the fourth-most digs with 36. Defibaugh also added three aces over the course of four games.
Slippery Rock had four different players provide greatly in both attacking and defending last weekend. Headlining the bunch was freshman middle-hitter Erinn Kahoe,who led the team in kills (42) and blocks (13). A bench player last weekend, sophomore outside hitter Kaley Fucci took her opporunity to start and ran with it, providing 34 kills, the second-most digs on the team with 45 as well as two aces. Junior middle-hitter Shayla Ray also did not start the previous weekend, but gave the Rock their second-most blocks (12) and kills (36). Rounding out the versatile performers were a pair of freshman: outside hitter Stephanie Jacobsen (23 kills, 7 blocks, 21 digs) and defensive specialist Jalyn Willard (40 digs, four aces).
The Green and White had three additional contributors on the offensive side that led to their four-straight victories. Senior middle hitter Brooke Bostwick led the pack; after not starting the previous four games, she showed up big time with 28 kills. Junior opposite Kelsey Boyle and senior outside hitter Lamija Alisic rounded out the offensive performers, with 19 kills and nine kills, respectively.
SRU will look to keep the winning streak rolling as they travel to the Atlantic Region Crossover to play four games between Friday, September 15th and Saturday, September 16th. Slippery Rock will play Fairmont State and West Liberty in West Liberty, West Virginia on Friday, and will play Wheeling Jesuit and rematch the University of Charleston in Charleston on Saturday.
