Grantham, PA – The Messiah women's volleyball team defeated the Pride of Widener University in a 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-13) sweep this evening. The Falcons improve to 4-1 in the MAC Commonwealth and 19-4 overall on the season. Jane Underman led the team with 14 kills and a .476 attack percentage while Kristen Douglas had 11 kills. Brooke Gallagher dished out 31 assists in the winning effort.
 
Messiah trailed early in the first set but utilized a couple different scoring runs to capture the firs set victory 25-19. They finished with more kills (13-8), and a higher attack percentage (.200 - .069) than the Pride in the first set of play.
 
Widener jumped to an early lead and with the Falcons trailing 7-3 kills by Hannah Baumer and Kristen Douglas, and a service ace from Jessica Zellers cut the lead 7-6. Later, Messiah was behind 9-7 but scored two-straight points off a kill by Jane Underman and a Widener error to tie it at nine.
 
The Pride responded and again regained control but the Falcons kept fighting. Down 14-11 Messiah tallied three unanswered points to once again tie the game at 14. Douglas and Hannah Baumer each had kills in that scoring run.
 
The most pivotal scoring run came not long after as Messiah scored four consecutive points off two Widener errors, a service ace, and a kill to take their first lead of the set 18-16. The Falcons kept control the rest of the way and with the lead 22-19 recorded the final three set points off a Pride error and kills from Jane Underman and Brooke Gallagher.
 
Messiah kept the momentum going into the second set but it again proved to be a competitive game.
 
Points were traded back-and-forth early but with the Falcons ahead 8-7 they tallied three-straight points off two service aces by Brooke Gallagher and a kill from Jane Underman to extend their lead 11-7.
 
Later with Messiah holding the 15-13 advantage over Widener they recorded three unanswered points to push ahead 18-13. Kristen Douglas and Jane Underman each hammered down kills in that three-point scoring run.
 
The Falcons were leading by five 20-15 when the Pride recorded a kill to pull within four but Messiah responded in the biggest way recording five-straight points to take the second set win 25-16. Two Widener errors, two kills from Hannah Baumer, and one from Mary Underman accounted for the points in that run.
 
The third and final set proved to be the cleanest and strongest offensive showing by Messiah on the night as they finished with 15 kills, an impressive .609 attack percentage, and only committed one error.
 
The third set started differently from the first two as Messiah dominated jumping to an early 5-2 lead and then recorded three-straight points off kills by Kristen Douglas and Mary Underman, and a Pride error to push ahead 8-2.
 
Later with the Falcons leading 10-4 a kill from Taylor Hook, one from Brooke Gallagher, and a Pride error increased their lead 13-4. Messiah kept a solid lead the rest of the set and even though Widener slowly tried to break through, the Falcons kept responding.
 
Holding a comfortable 20-11 advantage the Pride tallied two-straight points but that is all they would get the rest of the match. The Falcons finished the third set on a five-point scoring run off two Pride errors and kills from Kristen Douglas, Jane Underman, and Taylor Hook to win 25-13.

As mentioned Jane Underman recorded 14 kills tonight putting her in first place in the all-time record books for career kills with 1,426. A record previously held by Messiah volleyball assistant coach Lauren Bond '12.
 
The Falcons have the weekend off but will be back in action next Wednesday Oct. 19 when the travel to Arcadia University for a MAC Commonwealth match. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. in Glenside, Pa.