CHARLESTON, W.Va. – UC women's volleyball opened the MEC/PSAC Crossover Tournament with a pair of wins Friday, defeating Kutztown in four sets before knocking off IUP in five sets in the nightcap.

Just the Basics

SCORES      
 
MATCH 1 Charleston 3, Kutztown 1 (25-13, 25-13, 27-29, 25-13)
MATCH 2 Charleston 3, Indiana Univ. of Pa. 2 (23-25, 25-21, 25-20, 18-25, 15-13)
 
TEAM RECORDS - Charleston (3-3, 0-0 MEC), Kutztown (2-4, 0-0 PSAC), IUP (3-3, 0-0 PSAC)

Match Leaders
UC vs. KU
-UC junior Tori Clark turned in a career-high 13 kills in Charleston's 4-set win over Kutztown to open the MEC/PSAC Crossover Tournament.
-Charleston's Megan Mourier hit an efficient .533 in UC's victory over the Golden Bears, totaling nine kills on 15 attempts while committing just one error.
-Chloe Massaro led all players with 28 assists in the match, while Kelsey Matusic was the match leader in digs with 20 in the four-set win.
 
UC vs. IUP
-The Golden Eagles got double digit kills from Megan Mourier and Tori Clark, finishing with 12 and 11 respectively.  IUP's Natalie Cignetti paced all hitters with 20 kills on 59 attempts.
-The Crimson Hawks got 50 assists from setter Katie Miller in the losing effort, while UC's Massaro and Claire Lambert totaled 47 assists for the match.
-Again junior libero Kelsey Matusic led the match in digs with 25 in the five-set win. She also added three aces in the match to lead all servers.


How it Happened
MATCH 1
Golden Eagle women's volleyball got off to strong start in the MEC/PSAC Crossover Tournament, defeating Kutztown University, 3-1, Friday morning.  UC won each of their sets by a score of 25-13 to clinch the match.  Charleston took command of the match early on, building a double-digit, 18-7, advantage behind the strong play of Tori Clark en rounte to an easy 25-13 set victory.
 
UC again jumped out to a huge lead, scoring 12 of the first 13 points to race to a 12-1 advantage early in the second set. Tori Clark again provided the offense for Charleston, coming up with five kills as the Golden Eagles cruised to a 25-13 set win and a 2-0 lead. 
 
The third set was tightly played as the Golden Bears rebounded from a tough first pair of sets to take a 29-27 set victory and close the match to 2-1 heading to the fourth set. Kutztown had their best attacking effort in the set, hitting at .180 in the set win.
 
Charleston returned to form in the fourth set, again taking the set 25-13 to secure their second victory of the season.  The Golden Eagle defense held Kutztown to -.040 hitting in the set while producing nine kills and a .286 hitting effort.
 
MATCH 2
The nightcap of day one of the MEC/PSAC Crossover did not disappoint the students and fans who were in attendance, as Charleston pulled out an exhilarating five-set match over Indiana University of Pennsylvania. 
 
UC dropped a narrow first set (23-25) but didn't let the result get to them as they raced out to a 6-0 lead behind the serve of Massaro in the second before IUP got on the board. The Crimson Hawks showed their grit though and battled back to take a 20-16 lead late in the set.  Charleston had other thoughts and was determined to not fall behind two sets, using an 8-0 run on strong serving from Lambert and attacking from Clark to eventually take the set 25-21 and even the match.
 
The Golden Eagles carried over the momentum from the second to the third and controlled the set from the get-go, claiming the set and a 2-1 lead going to the fourth.  Signetti wouldn't let the Crimson Hawks go down without a fight, carrying the team on her back with 12 kills in the fourth set and force a fifth and deciding set for the match. 
 
Charleston seemed to have the final set in control, leading IUP 10-6 before the Golden Eagles got tight and watched the Crimson Hawks tie it at 10-10 after four consecutive errors from UC.  Charleston dug deep at 13-13, got a fortunate service error from the Hawks and Matusic dealt up a service ace to end match and send the Golden Eagle faithful into a roar as Charleston captured the five-set victory.

 
Up Next
- Charleston will host day two the MEC/PSAC Crossover Tournament all day Saturday in the Wehrle Athletic Arena, starting at 10:00 a.m.  The Golden Eagles face Shippensburg at 1:00 p.m. followed by Slippery Rock in the nightcap at 7:00 p.m.
 
--UC--