URBANA, Ohio – Thanks to a thrilling come from behind five-set victory, the Kutztown University volleyball team ended its stay in Ohio with a win on the second and final day of the Urbana Invitational on Saturday.
 
Falling in three sets to Armstrong State in the morning, KU (3-8) rallied from a set down twice, after dropping the first and third, to defeat Shepherd (18-25, 25-15, 21-25, 25-22, 15-12).
 
In a back-and-forth decisive fifth set, neither team led by more than two until Kutztown rallied with five points in a row to take a commanding 12-8 lead. Beginning with a Shepherd (5-7) service error, Anna Conti (Grove City, Ohio/Grove City) then delivered an ace before a Tori Wakelee (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East) kill and two Ram errors capped the stretch. SU fought back within two points three separate times, but kills by Brittney Moyer (Orwigsburg, Pa./Blue Mountain (Lock Haven)) and Jessica Howe (Chambersburg, Pa./Chambersburg Area) gave the Golden Bears points number 13 and 14 before one final error sealed the victory.
 
Kutztown gradually improved its hitting percentage each set before finishing error-free in the fifth en route to a blistering .533 percentage.
 
With 13 and 11 kills, respectively, Howe and Moyer were two of the three Golden Bears to finish with double-digit kills. Freshman Taylor Brown (Dillsburg, Pa./Northern) broke out with 12 on .500 hitting, more than doubling her previous season and career-high. Howe was one short of her season-best, while for Moyer, it was her tenth double-digit performance in 11 matches.
 
Moyer also tied a new career-high with 19 digs to lead all players in what was her tenth double-double of the season. Behind her was Madison Brake (Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Bishop Hartley) with 13 and freshman Sophie Kerschner (Clinton, N.J./North Hunterdon) with 12, the first double-digit performance of the rookie's career.
 
After Shepherd took control of the first set with five consecutive points to go ahead 16-10, it was Kutztown who pulled away around that same time in the second. Leading by one, 10-9, a Moyer kill began a streak of KU scoring five of the next six points. Conti added a service ace and Long produced a kill before another Moyer kill and bad set by the Rams made the score 15-10. Later on, the Golden Bears would rattle off the final seven points of the set, which included two service aces from Kerschner and kills from Howe, Wakelee and Zandria Zielinski (York, Pa./York Catholic). 
 
Shepherd rode taking the first five points of the third to a two sets to one lead. After making it 2-5, Kutztown could not manage to get within three until back-to-back Ram errors made it 19-22. A Moyer kill and another error made it 20-23 and 21-24, respectively, before the Rams finally put the set away with a Jaila Bell kill.
 
Up 20-15, KU looked as if it would cruise to taking a fourth set, but Shepherd came all the way back to tie it at 22, capped by three successive points. The Golden Bears regained their composure, with Brown picking up back-to-back kills before a Conti service ace forced the decisive fifth.
 
With the score even through the first eight points of the morning match, Armstrong State (9-1) went on a commanding 16-2 run to run away with the opening set behind a blistering .542 hitting percentage. It was much of the same for the Pirates in the second, as they pulled away with four consecutive points to go up 13-7 to eventually take the commanding two-set lead.
 
Kutztown hung around longer in the third, staying within three as late as 16-13 on a Zielinski kill, but could never get any closer and Armstrong completed the sweep.
 
Armstrong hit .500 in the sweep (25-10, 25-14, 25-18), with six players swinging at least .571. Eight Pirates recorded at least three kills, led by Rachel Thompson with 10.
 
For KU, Conti led the way with 16 assists and six digs. Moyer was atop the team with seven kills, breaking her streak of nine consecutive matches with double-digit kills to open the year, with Howe right behind her with six.
 
Kutztown begins Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) play next Friday, beginning its league schedule with a road trip to Indiana (Pa.) for a 7 p.m. start.