MAC Volleyball Championships Site
Commonwealth Semifinals: Wednesday, Nov. 6, at Lebanon Valley College
No. 3 Messiah vs. No. 2 Lebanon Valley, 7:00 p.m.
Grantham, PA – The Falcons are preparing to face off against the Dutchmen of Lebanon Valley in the Commonwealth semifinals in Annville, Pa., on Wednesday. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.
Scouting the Falcons
No. 3 Messiah College will come into the match riding a three-game winning streak and holds records of 19-11 overall and 7-2 in the Commonwealth. Their previous conference losses came against the Dutchmen and Stevenson University.
This season the Falcons are averaging 12.4 kills per set and are hitting with a .183 percentage. Assists per set come in just below that number with 11.6. Messiah is also averaging 19.6 digs per set and 1.5 blocks per set.
Leading that attacking effort for the Falcons is the freshman duo of
Kristen Douglas and
Jane Underman. Currently, they each have a total of 288 kills and each hit from the outside position.
Alyssa Vorbeck has also contributed significantly to the Falcons' attacking, with 192 kills and a team-leading .251 hitting percentage.
Helping those hitters get those numbers is senior setter,
Jessica Geib, who only needs 18 more assists to reach 1000 for the second-straight year.
Leading on the defensive side is senior libero,
Allison Hill, with 381 digs, followed by Douglas with 354. Vorbeck leads the Falcons' blocking with 75 total.
Jordyn Scheib follows her with 58 total blocks.
Scouting the Dutchmen
Lebanon Valley finished the regular season with an overall record of 28-6 and conference record of 8-1. Their lone Commonwealth loss was to Stevenson University.
The Dutchmen's most recent match was a 3-1 loss to Gaulladet University, whom the Falcons defeated earlier in the year 3-1.
Kayla Confer leads Lebanon Valley in kills with 295 and Kacey Musselman provides the sets with 1056 assists on the year. Musselman also leads the team in digs with 351. Alli Quirk has collected their most blocks this season with 58 total.
When They First Met
Messiah and Lebanon Valley faced off earlier in the year, on Sept. 11 in Grantham, Pa. The Dutchmen came out on top in the match, 3-1 (19-25, 17-25, 25-21, 24-26), handing the Falcons their first loss of the year and starting a 5-game losing streak.
Lebanon Valley's Greta Weidemoyer led the match in kills with 14 while Messiah's Underman and
Taylor Hook put up 11 kills each. Geib led either team in assists with 40 and also contributed 15 digs.
The match was extremely close despite the loss and it can be argued that Messiah now has a much different team as that match was played over seven weeks ago. Expect both teams to come out firing on all cylinders and battle until the final whistle.
Around the Commonwealth
Elsewhere in the league, No. 4 Elizabethtown will host No. 5 Lycoming on Monday, Nov. 4 at 3:00 p.m. to determine the other semifinal matchup at No. 1 Stevenson University on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.
The conference finals will take place this Saturday, Nov. 9, with time and location yet to be determined. The higher seed of the winning teams will host that game.
