BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – The Geneva College women's volleyball team finally got a chance to return to the court on Wednesday afternoon after missing over two weeks while taking a COVID pause, and it proved to be worth the wait. Taking on rival Grove City in the final regular season match of the season, with critical seeding for the upcoming Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) playoffs on the line, Geneva defeated the Wolverines 21-25, 25-23, 25-20, 26-24. The win improved Geneva's record to 10-1 overall, 6-1 in the PAC, while Grove City dropped to 6-4 overall, 6-3 in the PAC.
Prior to the game, Geneva took time to honor senior
Daphne Hunsinger (Harleysville, Pa./Christopher Dock), who was playing her last regular season home match. Hunsinger, the reigning PAC Player of the Year and a 1
st Team National Christian College Athletic Association All-American, will undoubtedly go down as one of the best women's volleyball players to ever wear a Geneva jersey. On top of those festivities, Grove City was right behind the Golden Tornadoes in the PAC standing, and a Geneva loss could drop it as far as the #4 seed in the PAC playoffs, missing out on one of the byes to the top two teams in the conference. Hunsinger made sure the Golden Tornadoes wouldn't lose.
As one might have expected, though, the start was rough for the Golden Tornadoes. Grove City came in playing some of its best volleyball of the season, and Geneva hadn't played a match in 17 days and had only just started practicing again two days ago. The Wolverines jumped out to a 7-3 lead and, other than the initial point, led the whole set. Grove City continued to build its lead, extending it as high as 16-8. The Golden Tornadoes used a four-run to get as close as 19-16, but the Wolverines closed out the set 25-21. Despite the loss, Geneva seemed to find itself late in the first set, and that seemed to carry over to the rest of the match.
The second set was tight early, with the score tied at 7-7 when Geneva used a 5-1 run to take a 12-8 advantage. Sophomore
Olivia Moore (North Canton, Ohio/Lake Center Christian) and Hunsinger had back-to-back kills in the run. Grove City scored the next two points, but Geneva seemingly put the set away with a 7-1 run that gave the Golden Tornadoes a 19-11 lead, with freshman
Tess Neville (Lisbon, Ohio/Crestview) contributing two kills in the stretch. However, disaster almost happened late. Grove City went on a 9-1 run, including six straight points, to take a 23-22, and Geneva looked on the verge of giving away the set and dropping two sets behind. A kill from Moore brought the Golden Tornadoes even, and then a kill from sophomore
Kimee Kuzma (Baden, Pa./Ambridge) followed to get Geneva to set point, and Moore came up with a block to finish off the set, 25-23.
Once again, the early part of the third set stayed close until Grove City used a four-point run to take an 11-7 lead. Geneva answered right back with a 5-1 run, including back-to-back aces by Hunsinger, to even the set at 12-12. A moment later, the Golden Tornadoes took control of the set with a 9-2 run, extending the Geneva lead to 24-17. Hunsinger had five straight kills for Geneva in one stretch, and despite three straight points late from Grove City, the Golden Tornadoes closed out the set on a kill by freshman
Savannah Byers (Lancaster, Pa./Conestoga Valley), 25-20.
Geneva led early in set four, 7-5, before Grove City put together an 8-1 run to take a 13-8 advantage. The Wolverines looked on their way to evening the match up, building its lead to as much as 19-13. The Golden Tornadoes had a response again, though. Moore had two kills in an 8-2 run that tied the set at 21-21. The Wolverine scored two of the next three points to take a 23-22 edge, but back-to-back kills from Neville and junior
Hannah Dusse (Plant City, Fla./Lakeland Christian) pushed Geneva to match point. The Wolverines staved off one match point to even the set at 24-24, but the Golden Tornadoes scored the final two points, the last one fittingly on another kill from Hunsinger, 26-24.
Hunsinger tied her career-high with 16 kills, adding another triple-double to her resume by also contributing 25 assists and 10 digs. Moore added 10 kills in the win. Junior
Kayla Coughlin (Brunswick, Ohio/Brunswick) was all over the court defensively, finishing with 35 digs, one off her career high. Sophomore
Maggie Townsend was also key defensively, finishing with a season-high 19 digs. Grove City actually outhit Geneva .180 to .151, but the Golden Tornado block came up big with 12 blocks in the match, led by four apiece from Dusse and Kuzma.
"I was definitely worried coming into the match with how long we had been off," said Head Coach
Wendy Smith. "And I think that showed early on. But it was all about Daphne tonight. Every time we needed a big play, she always seemed to come through. We had a lot of good contributions from a lot of players tonight that helped with the win, but tonight was all about Daphne, from the celebration before the match, to her play in the match. A win like this will hopefully help give us some momentum as we look ahead to the playoffs coming up next week."
The official playoff seedings will be announced once the conference Athletic Directors have a chance to meet tomorrow. Because Geneva missed two conference matches, the Golden Tornadoes will have to wait for the official announcement confirming that Geneva has secured the second seed. If that is the case, the Golden Tornadoes will receive a bye in Saturday's quarterfinal action between the third through sixth seeds, and Geneva will open in the PAC semifinals on Tuesday.
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 145 traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. Geneva has one of the top 100 undergraduate engineering programs in the nation, according to
U.S. News and World Report. 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. Geneva was founded and is governed by the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) and is a founding member of both the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and IACE (International Association for Christian Education).
