BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – The Geneva College women's volleyball team put together one of its most complete performances of the season on Thursday night against Chatham, dominating the Cougars throughout in a 25-11, 25-11, 25-16 sweep.  Geneva improved to 16-7 overall, 8-3 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC), while Chatham fell to 6-14, 2-8 in the PAC.

Geneva's dominating play began right from the start, as the Golden Tornadoes scored the first six points of the match on its way to a 10-1 lead, with junior Daphne Hunsinger (Harleysville, Pa./Christopher Dock) picking up four early kills.  Chatham had its only strong stretch of the night over the next few minutes, cutting the lead to 13-11, prompting Head Coach Wendy Smith to call a timeout.  Whatever Smith said worked, as the Golden Tornadoes came out of the timeout and score the final 12 points of the set behind the serving of freshman Maggie Townsend (Beaver Falls, Pa./Beaver County Christian), with sophomore Elana Hoppel (Castorland, N.Y./Lowville Academy and Central) contributing three kills in that stretch.

Geneva opened the second set with the first nine points, with senior Grace McCracken (Bloomington, Ind./Lighthouse Christian Academy) serving this set's opening run, picking up two aces.  Chatham never had a chance to get back into the things, and Geneva closed the set out, 25-11, on a kill from freshman Hope Shook (Bellwood, Pa./Bellwood-Antis).  Senior Kacey Costal (Salem, Ohio/Salem) had six kills in the set.

The third set followed a similar pattern as the first two, with Geneva once again jumping out to a big early lead, 12-3.  Hunsinger had four more kills in this opening stretch.  Geneva eventually stretched its lead to 24-9 before finally closing out the set, 25-16, on one final kill from Hunsinger.

"This was a really complete performance," said Coach Smith.  "I know Chatham has been struggling some recently, but we played really well from the beginning and never gave them a chance.  We're coming down to the final two weeks of the regular season, so to see us starting to play our best as the season comes down to crunch time is very encouraging.  I feel like we're starting to figure out some rotational things as well, which is also helping us.  The next big test will come on Saturday when we head down to Bethany."

Hunsinger finished with her sixth triple-double of the season, contributing 24 assists, 14 kills and 10 digs.  Costal also hit double-digits in kills, finishing with 10.  Townsend put together a very strong effort as well, contributing a team-high 26 digs to go with six assists and five kills.  Sophomore Kayla Coughlin added 17 digs, while McCracken finished with 11 digs and four aces, with the Golden Tornadoes getting good contributions up and down their roster.

Geneva next heads south to Bethany on Saturday for a 12:00 p.m. match with the Bison.  Bethany defeated Geneva 3-1 two week ago in Metheny Fieldhouse in one of the Golden Tornadoes' poorer performances of the season.


Geneva College is a Christ-centered academic community that provides a comprehensive education to equip students for faithful and fruitful service to God and neighbor. Offering over 115 traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. U.S. News & World Report ranks Geneva as a Top Three Best Value Regional University with one of the top engineering programs in the nation. Adhering to the truth of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God's Word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today's world.