ERIE, Pa. & EDINBORO, Pa. – Kutztown women's volleyball continued its tour out in the western part of the state, playing two non-conference matches at Mercyhurst in the morning and then at Edinboro in the afternoon. KU defeated the Lakers in four sets and then was downed by the Fighting Scots in four sets Saturday.
 
The Golden Bears (6-5 overall) won by scores of 15-25, 25-19, 25-19 and 25-19 in Erie before falling by scores of 20-25, 18-25, 25-22 and 14-25.
 
Sadie Doss (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Mechanicsburg) finished with 38 kills (19 each match) and added 19 digs. Gabriela Fialova (Ledec nad Sazavou, Czech Republic/Sportovni Gymnazium Ludvika Danka) totaled 25 kills and 31 digs, including a team-high 18 in the second match. Cat Farole (Orefield, Pa./Parkland) recorded 76 assists, including a career-high 40 against the Fighting Scots. Mallory Hoch (Zionsville, Pa./Southern Lehigh) contributed 23 digs.
 
Kutztown returns home and will begin play in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference as it hosts East Stroudsburg next Friday, Sept. 22, at 7 p.m., from Keystone Arena.
 
KUTZTOWN 3, MERCYHURST 1
Kutztown scored the match's first point on a kill by Post to go ahead 1-0, but that was the lone lead of the set for KU as Mercyhurst went ahead 5-4 and then scored seven straight points to extend the advantage to 12-4 and led by as many as 11 in opening the match with a victory.
 
Fialova and Doss connected on back-to-back kills as the Golden Bears jumped on top 3-0 and scored 11 of the first 13 points, going on an 8-0 run after the Lakers cut their deficit to 3-2. Alexa Feorene (Murrysville, Pa./Franklin Regional) notched two service aces and Grace Ingram (Allentown, Pa./William Allen) added a kill in that stretch. KU jumped its advantage to as many as 12 points then at 16-4 and held on to a late Mercyhurst run to even the match at 1-1.
 
The third set was back-and-forth for most of the first 20 points. The Maroon and Gold trailed 11-8 and then went on a 6-0 run to go on top 14-11 and the Lakers never got closer than four the rest of the way as Kutztown held its first match lead at 2-1.
 
Like in the opening set, the team that scored first and went ahead, didn't end up winning the set. Mercyhurst opened the scoring thanks to an attack error by Kutztown, but the Golden Bears answered and scored three straight points and never trailed the rest of the way in bouncing back from Friday night to win the match 3-1.
 
Doss led the attack with 19 kills and added seven digs. Fialova had nine kills and 13 digs. Farole contributed 36 assists and a team-high 16 digs. Hoch and Feorene both had double-digit digs with 12 and 10, respectively.
 
EDINBORO 3, KUTZTOWN 1
It looked to be a daunting task for Kutztown as Edinboro took the first two sets and then rallied when KU led 20-15 in the third set to tie the score at 20-20. Following a timeout, the Golden Bears regrouped and earned the set win by scoring five of the final seven points, capped by a Fialova kill.
 
The Fighting Scots, however, responded in a big way. After falling behind 2-0 following two service aces by Fialova, they went on a 10-2 run to go on top 10-4 and never looked back.

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