Lady Roaring Lions win seventh straight title
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – All season long the Lady Roaring Lions had been focusing on the "Stairway to Seven," – a paraphrase of the Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven," – as it marched toward it's unprecedented seventh-consecutive PSUAC Women's Volleyball title.
Fayette reached the top of the stairway on Oct. 19, when they defeated Penn State Brandywine 3-1, to capture their seventh title in as many years.
This one was by far the most difficult one, with a scrappy and well-tuned Brandywine team nearly matching the Lady Roaring Lions point for point, as evidenced by the close set scores of 25-22, 25-23, 26-28 and 25-20.
Samantha Helmantoler (Monongahela, Pa.) led the offense with 20 kills while Emily Konter (Brownsville, Pa.) notched 44 assists. Kelsey Tyler (Canonsburg, Pa.) followed with 13 kills and a block, Emily Caldwell (Belle Vernon, Pa) added nine kills.
Caitlyn Williams, (Dunbar, Pa.), led the defense with 23 digs. Konter added 21, Caldwell 19 and Samantha Helmantoler with 12.
The first three games were mirror images of each other, with both teams battling for each point and featured long rallies with spectacular plays on both sides of the net.
Unlike most of the season, the Lady Roaring Lions were not able to go on one of their familiar scoring runs, instead trading points until the very end.
The closest they came was a 5-2 run to close the game. Williams broke a 20-20 tie with a kill and Tyler's kill a few plays later gave the Lady Roaring Lions a 25-22 win.
The second set was much like the first, with Sam Helmantoler getting the kill shot for a 25-23 win.
Game four went to Brandywine, the only team to take a set from the Lady Roaring Lions during conference play. Fayette had a chance to close it out, leading 24-22. Brandywine rallied and eventually took the set 28-26.
Long rallies and tension filled set four with no team taking a lead of more than two points until an attack error by Brandywine started a 6-0 run for the Lady Roaring Lions, highlighted by a pair of kills from Tyler. The last one gave Fayette a 23-17 lead. Brandywine wasn't done yet, closing to 23-20 on a service ace from Nicole Poissant.
Tyler got a kill on the next point and an attack error from Brandywine gave Fayette the 25th point and another championship.
Fayette will now advance to the USCAA National Championships hosted by SUNY-Canton in Canton, N.Y. Oct. 30-Nov. 1.