BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – The Geneva College women's volleyball entered a pivotal stretch of its schedule on Tuesday night and got things off to a good start with a sweep (25-17, 25-15, 25-16) of Waynesburg inside Metheny Fieldhouse. The Golden Tornadoes improved to 8-12 overall, 2-2 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC), while Waynesburg dropped to 2-17, 0-4 in the PAC.
The women are headed into the home stretch of their season jockeying for one of the six spots in the PAC playoffs. Geneva is one of eight or nine teams that are vying for one of those spots, with the Golden Tornadoes slated to play several of those teams over the next two weeks, so the women knew they needed to get off to a good start on Tuesday against a struggling Waynesburg team, and the Golden Tornadoes did just that.
Waynesburg scored the first point of the match before Geneva responded with the next six points, with senior Hope Shook (Bellwood, Pa./Bellwood-Antis) contributing two early kills. The Yellow Jackets would pull within one point three separate times, the last time coming at 12-11, but two more kills from Shook and an ace from senior Maggie Townsend (Beaver Falls, Pa./Beaver County Christian) helped the women push their lead to 16-11. Waynesburg stopped the run with a point, but back-to-back kills from Shook and freshman Emily Nelson (Kijabe, Kenya/Rift Valley Academy) kicked off six straight Geneva points to put the set away, and sophomore Megan Veon (New Castle, Pa./Mohawk) finished off the set with a kill, 25-17.
Two more early kills from Shook gave Geneva a 3-1 lead in the second set before Waynesburg scored twice to even the set. However, two kills from freshman Liz Samuelsen (Fort Leonard Wood, Mo./Maranatha Baptist Academy), and kills from Nelson and junior Savannah Byers (Lancaster, Pa./Conestoga Valley) were part of five-point run for the Golden Tornadoes, and Geneva steadily stretched its lead out from there. Another kill from Shook began another five-point run a few minutes later to give Geneva a 21-12 advantage, and a kill from Byers finished off the set 25-15.
The third set was close early before Geneva put together a 10-1 run midway through the set, taking a commanding 17-9 lead. At one point Samuelsen had three straight kills, while freshman Heather Seubert (Camp Hill, Pa./Trinity) had back-to-back aces and Shook two more kills in the stretch. Waynesburg never got closer than five points the rest of the way, and the Golden Tornadoes easily closed out the match with a 25-16 victory.
Shook led the offense with 12 kills on a .333 hitting percentage, continuing her recent strong play, while Nelson added eight kills and Samuelsen seven kills. As a team Geneva hit .153, while Waynesburg finished with a negative .023 hitting percentage. Junior Samantha Peachey (Colorado Springs, Colo./Liberty) finished with a team-high 12 assists, including her 1,000th career assist, while Townsend led the team with 22 digs.
Geneva will stay at home this week and host W&J on Thursday night for a very important PAC matchup, with the winner getting an upper hand in the race for the playoffs. The match starts at 7:00 p.m. inside Metheny Fieldhouse.
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).
