Fayette VB rolls five wins over the weekend

Lemont Furnace, PA - The Penn State Fayette volleyball team is on a roll, and it made program history over the weekend as it won five PSUAC matches.

"They are playing fantastic right now," said coach Sam Swetz of her team which is ranked eighth in the USCAA until the next rankings come out. "I am growing more and more proud every day of this team."

The team is now 13-6, including 5-0 in conference play, and has won nine straight matches.

In fact, the team has been so dominant during the winning streak that it has won 27 out of 28 sets.

All five matches took place at home with a pair of wins Saturday coming against Penn State Brandywine and Penn State Lehigh Valley while the three wins on Sunday came against Penn State Wilkes Barre, Penn State Schuylkill and Penn State Hazleton.

In Saturday's opener against Brandywine, Fayette won, 3-1 (25-22, 25-12, 22-25, 25-11), to gain a form of revenge.

"This was a huge redemption for us," said Swetz. "They beat us for the conference championship last year."

Jadyn Barnish (Carmichaels, Carmichaels HS) had 40 assists, Siteri Tale (Uniontown/Laurel Highlands HS) had 25 kills, 16 digs and three kills, Chanel Porter (Cumberland, MD/Allegany HS) had 22 digs, Morgan Pytlak (Rillton, PA/Yough HS) had three blocks and Machaela Hall (Fairchance, PA/Albert Gallatin HS) had three aces.

The team followed by sweeping Lehigh Valley (25-10, 25-4, 25-10), 3-0.

Barnish had 17 assists, Tale had 13 kills, Carissa Cyphert (Scottdale, PA/Southmoreland HS) had seven kills, Hall had seven digs and five aces, Kiki Martin (Brownsville, PA/Brownsville HS)had 12 assists, Porter recorded eight digs and Pytlak had seven aces.

The team opened up Sunday with a 3-0 sweep of Wilkes Barre (25-12, 25-7, 25-6).

Pytlak had five aces and seven kills, Anei Toaisi (Uniontown, Uniontown HS) had eight digs, Barnish (nine) and Martin (14) combined for 23 assists and Tale had a block and seven kills.

The team continued its roll with a sweep on Schuylkill (25-13, 25-7, 25-6).

Barnish had 29 assists, Tale recorded six blocks and 14 kills, Hall had 13 digs, Cyphert added seven kills and Porter recorded six aces.

Fayette closed out the weekend with a 3-0 win over Hazleton (25-12, 25-9, 25-18).

Barnish recorded 35 assists, Porter had 19 digs, Tale had 14 kills and four blocks, Martin had 11 kills, and both Alex Muccioli (Perryopolis,PA/Frazier HS) and Hall had three aces a piece.

"It was an awesome weekend for us," Swetz said. "The team had been working hard to prepare for this weekend and their hard work has paid off.

"It was great to be bale to accomplish this on our home court in front of all of our awesome fans cheering the team on."

There is a JV match at home on Wednesday, and the varsity team returns to action Saturday at Penn State DuBois, the top-ranked team in the USCAA.

Fayette handed DuBois its only conference loss this season on September 15 when it won 3-1 (25-22, 25-19, 24-26, 25-14).

For more information on the team, go to https://www.psfathletics.com/sports/wvball/index.

Written by Bill Hughes