Video Replay
 
KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Friday night's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division match between Kutztown University and Millersville University was played at an incredibly high intensity with a potential playoff spot on the line. Both teams are still two games out of the deciding fourth seed, but the Marauders gained the edge in the head-to-head series with a 3-2 win on Friday at Keystone Arena.
 
The Golden Bears (12-15, 6-13 PSAC East) and Marauders (13-15, 6-13) played most of Friday night's match within five points. Following the match, the teams hold an identical conference record and rate fifth in the East. Both teams are chasing West Chester and Shippensburg for the final spot in the playoffs, but Millersville will hold any tiebreaker with two wins over KU this season.
 
Senior Chelsea Braga (Long Beach, N.Y./Long Beach (Fairleigh Dickinson)) turned in one of her best career matches when Kutztown needed it most. Defensively, she had a season-high and a career-high-tying 25 digs, elevating her to 1,002 in her career. She is the eighth player in school history to record 1,000 digs and the first since Lindsey Smith in 2011.
 
Braga also tied her career-high with 17 kills. She dominated offensively with just two errors for a .333 attack percentage, her highest attack percentage with 10 or more kills since 2012 in her first season with the Golden Bears.
 
The first and final set of the night went to extra points, both of which were won by Millersville. Both teams showed flashes of why they deserved to win Friday night's match. Kutztown held a healthy advantage in hitting percentage (.226/.175), but Millersville held a seven-point advantage in reception errors (15/7).
 
Braga wasn't the only Golden Bear with a strong offensive outing. Fellow senior Aly York (Douglassville, Pa./Daniel Boone) turned in her best career outing and threw down 18 kills with just four errors for a .275 hitting percentage. Her kills marked a career-high, and her hitting percentage was a career-best when the Douglassville native tallies 10 or more kills. Defensively, York's 16 digs tied her career-high and marked the third time in the last four matches she has had 16 digs.
 
Junior Audrey Stringer (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury) rounded out Kutztown's double-digit attackers with 10 kills and five total blocks.
 
Sophomore Anna Conti (Grove City, Ohio/Grove City) set up the Golden Bears attackers with 50 assists. Still in her second year, she already has 1,894 assists in her career and is ninth away from sixth place in school history and 44 shy of fifth.
 
Millersville led most of the first set. KU kept itself poised and waited to strike until late in the set. After trailing 22-19, Kutztown scored the next four points to take a 23-22 lead, and then the teams traded points to tie the set at 24. Tied at 27, Stringer tallied a well-placed kill in the center of the court for set-point, but Millersville responded with three straight points, two off service aces, to win the first set 30-28.
 
Kutztown jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second set that stretched out to 9-3. Millersville came back with 10 of the next 14 points to tie the set at 13-all off a service ace. Tied at 18, Kutztown rattled off seven of the next 10 points to earn the 25-21 win and tie the match.
 
The third set played as evenly as the first, with the entire set played within four points. Tied at 22, Millersville went up by two with an ace and a kill to earn itself set-point. KU fought back with a kill to bring itself within one, but the Marauders finished off the set with a 25-23 win and take a 2-1 lead.
 
Tied at 20 in the fourth set, Kutztown built momentum with four straight points to earn set-point. Millersville answered with two points, but Danielle Van Buren (Bethlehem, Pa./Saucon Valley) drove home the set-winning kill to force a deciding fifth set.
 
To no surprise, the fifth set was tied at 11 in a first-to-15 format. Millersville earned a variety of points off a KU attack error, a block and a kill to earn match-point at 14-11. The Golden Bears rallied behind a block by Van Buren and Zandria Zielinski (York, Pa./York Catholic), a Millersville attack error, and a potential match-saving block by York and Stringer to tie the match at 14. Tied at 15, Millersville notched back-to-back kills to win the match.
 
Millersville was led by Katie Lesinski, who had 23 kills on an eye-opening 73 attacks. She also tallied a game-high 28 digs. Brooklyn Smith added 27 digs as the Millersville offense was also led by Erin Harman (16 kills), Mary Paul (14) and Kayla Wallace (11).
 
The Golden Bears will need to put Friday night behind them and focus on the task at hand of Shippensburg University on Saturday, Nov. 1. Shippensburg entered the weekend fighting for a playoff spot as well, but Kutztown will look to keep its name in the mix and sweep the Red Raiders this season. Game time and Senior Day is set for 1 p.m.