The Slippery Rock women’s volleyball (11-16) (3-12) team hosted Edinboro (19-8) (8-7) in their final home game this season. The fighting Scots jumped out to an early lead, and SRU fought back hard before falling in five sets.
Edinboro jumped out to a huge 18-8 lead in the first set, before SRU battled back to push the set to 18-16 Edinboro, before ultimately falling 25-21.
A big part of why SRU was able to stay competitive all night was defensive play by a pair of seniors in middle hitter Brooke Bostwick and setter Haley Defibaugh. Bostwick recorded a team high and career high 13 kills, in addition to tying her career-high for blocks with six. This game moves Bostwick up to 94 blocks on the year and 199 in her career, 13th in school history.
Defibaugh chipped in 20 assits and six digs. Defibaugh leads the team in assits on the year with 526. Defibaugh ranks sixth in school history in total assists (2033).
“It’s a lot of practice, time and work,” Defibaugh said. “It’s about getting better, because you can never be too good.”
The Green and white started to fall apart, dropping the second set quickly 25-21 and going down 19-15 in the third set. Slippery Rock stormed back and won the set 26-24, thanks to two late kills by senior outside hitter Lamija Alisic. Alisic finished with six kills, two blocks, and two digs.
Slippery Rock won the fourth set 25-20, led by freshman middle hitter Erinn Kahoe (11 kills, four blocks) and sophomore outside hitter Kaley Fucci (10 kills, three blocks). Fucci leads the team in kills with 217.
SRU fought hard in the fifth and final set, but eventually fell 15-10.
“I’m extremely proud of them, we probably played better [against Edinboro] tonight than we did the first time when we beat them in three at their place,” Head coach Laurie Lokash said. “The kids played hard and that’s all you can ask for as a coach.”
Slippery Rock’s other notable performer was the always consistent senior defensive specialist Courtney Oberlander. Oberlander recorded 30 digs, moving her season total up to 630. The single-season school record for digs was set by Oberlander last year at 648. Oberlander is also second in school history in digs with 1871.
Despite senior day being over a week ago, this was the true final home game for the Rock’s seniors. The senior class consists of Oberlander, Defibaugh, Bostwick, Alisic, defensive specialist Kristen C. Smith, and setter Hannah Lombardo.
“This game really showed what we are about,” Defibaugh said. “We all came out and played hard, we knew we were ready to fight hard and leave it all on the court, I’m not dissapointed at all.
Slippery Rock will conclude its’ season this weekend with games at Gannon University on Friday and Mercyhurst University on Saturday.
“I coach to try to be successful in a match. For some people success is win, for us its playing the best that we can,” Lokash said. “With the crew that we have, they want to give it their best.
