Commonwealth Semifinals: Friday, Nov. 2, at Messiah College
No. 2 Messiah vs. No. 3 Elizabethtown, 7:00 p.m.
Tickets: Adults $5, Seniors $4, Students $2, Children 6-under Free
Grantham, PA - For the second time in as many years, Messiah College volleyball will host the Commonwealth Conference Semifinals. After advancing to their first-ever conference championship last season, the Falcons will look to return to the conference finale when they play host to Elizabethtown College on Friday of this week. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. in Brubaker Auditorium.
Scouting the Falcons
No. 2 Messiah College enters the seminal against No. 3 Elizabethtown riding a 13-game winning streak. The falcons ended the regular-season with a record of 23-7, including an 8-1 record in the Commonwealth. Their lone loss across the league schedule was to No. 1 Stevenson, a 3-1 loss in mid-September.
The Falcons went 9-1 at home this season, and placed second in the conference in many statistical categories including hitting percentage, opponent hitting percentage, assists, and kills. Messiah placed behind Stevenson in all those ranks.
Messiah is led by senior
Lauren Rees, who led the conference in both total kills (128) and kills per set (4.41). This season, Rees became Messiah's all-time leader in career kills while also setting a new single-season kills record. Rees hit .232 on the season, second the team to junior
Lindsay King (minimum 125 kills).
With any great attacker comes a great helper, and junior
Jessica Geib fits the bill. She collected over 1,000 on the season, 295 of which came in the Commonwealth. Her 9.83 assists per set average was second in the league.
Outside of Rees and Geib, the Falcons remain dangerous. King (sixth in the league in blocks), junior
Jordyn Scheib (fifth in the league in blocks), and freshman
Hayley Cowoski (second in the league in service aces), are just a few of the other names that opponents will need to watch.
Scouting the Blue Jays
Elizabethtown ended 2012 with a record of 20-12 overall including a 6-3 record in the Commonwealth. The Blue Jays had key victories over Widener and Lycoming this year, winning both matches in three sets. On the road, Elizabethtown is just 4-5.
In the conference, the Blue Jays placed just-behind Messiah in a both hitting percentage and opponent hitting percentage. The Blue Jays were just sixth in the league in total kills, but first in blocks and second in digs—a representation of their grind-it-out defensive approach.
The Blue Jays are led by a trio of underclassmen, including sophomore middle hitter Kelci Scannapieco (211 kills) and freshman outside hitter Juliana Mowan (and 214 kills). Freshman setter Mary Clyne delivered 719 assists in 2012, good for an average of 8.56 per set.
When They First Met
These two teams aren't likely to have forgotten their only match-up this season, as it occurred just last week. The Falcons
defeated Elizabethtown in four sets (25-16, 20-25, 25-17, 25-23) in Brubaker Auditorium. The Messiah victory was highlighted by a come-from-behind win it the fourth set to seal the decision.
In the match, Geib led Messiah with 41 assists while Rees collected an impressive 24 kills.
Scannapieco led the Blue Jays with 10 kills in the loss.
