INSTITUTE, W.Va. – The Point Park volleyball team dropped a pair of matches to close out the UC/WVSU Volleyball Cross over on Saturday. The Pioneers started the day with a 3-2 loss in the morning to Kentucky Wesleyan before falling 3-0 to East Stroudsburg in the afternoon.
In game one, Point Park found themselves down 2-0 after dropping the first two sets 25-17 and 25-21 before battling back and take the third and fourth set (25-18, 25-22) to force a decisive fifth set. Kentucky Wesleyan pulled out a 15-11 win in the fifth set to take the match and pick up their first win of the season.
Three Pioneers reached double digits kills with
Nicole Reasbeck (19),
Avery Budrys Rini (16), and
Alex Koontz (11) providing a huge offensive spark for the Pioneers. Point Park held a slim 55-53 advantage in kills over the Panthers. The Pioneers hit .140 while Kentucky Wesleyan hit .181 in the match.
Marianna Oyola-Rivera dished out a game-high 47 assists along with six aces while
Patricia Calero-Irizarry provided five blocks for the Pioneers. Reasbeck and
Savannah Kitchen each contributed with three blocks of their own while Budrys Rini had five aces to round out the statistical leaders for Point Park.
In game two the Pioneers dropped three sets (25-18, 25-23, 26-24) to East Stroudsburg to close out the classic.
The trio of Reasbeck, Budrys Rini, and Koontz led the Pioneers offense in game two with Reasbeck recording 12 kills, Budrys Rini recording 7, and Koontz with five.
Oyola-Rivera once again had a game-high 25 assists beating out East Stroudsburg's Kata Kovacs who had 22 assists. Reasbeck also had a game-high 15 digs to go along with her 12 kills.
East Stroudsburg outhit the Pioneers, hitting .243 in the match while Point Park hit .099. The Warriors narrowly beat out Point Park in every statistics category in the matchup.
With the pair of losses, the Pioneers return to Pittsburgh at 1-7 on the season. Point Park will finally get a chance to play on their homecourt as the Pioneers host California (Pa.) in a non-conference matchup at the Student Center Gym. First serve is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.
