KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Kutztown University women's volleyball team put together a pair of dominant set victories in the third and fourth frames to defeat the Bowie State Lady Bulldogs 3-1 on Friday night, opening the weekend's Shannon Sullivan Memorial Tournament with its first home win of the season at Keystone Arena.
The Golden Bears (2-2 overall) saw significant contributions from its newcomers in its four-set win over the Bulldogs (0-5), as junior transfer Paige Skinner (Placerville, Calif./Ponderosa) tallied 20 kills and an ace, while freshman Madilyn Bogovic (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cedar Cliff) led the team with five aces that came in the midst of a pair of KU scoring runs in the final two sets.
KU opened on a 6-0 run in the first set, led in part by the service of Emma Baldridge (Damascus, Md./Damascus), who finished the night with a pair of aces. From there, Kutztown held a margin of more than six points for the entire set, finishing with an 11-point margin to gain the 1-0 advantage.
After a five-point second set victory by the Bulldogs, it was another hot start for the Maroon and Gold, starting with a 5-1 advantage early in the set and finishing with a 6-0 run led by Bogovic that took any momentum away from Bowie State on the way to a 25-17 third set win. From there, the Golden Bears allowed seven points in the final set, relying on Baldridge and Bogovic to defeat the Bulldogs at the service line while the defense forced its opponent into a number of attack errors to put them away.
The final set scores were 25-14, 20-25, 25-17 and 25-7.
In addition to Bogovic's strong night from the service line, she was second on the team with 10 kills while also recording a team-high 10 digs. Freshman Lauren Montgomery (Norristown, Pa./Mount Saint Joseph Academy) tallied eight kills, while sophomore Macy Shewmake (Reading, Pa./Governor Mifflin) notched seven kills on 11 attack attempts. Baldridge had 38 set assists without an error to go along with ten digs, and libero Saige Thibodeaux (Cape Coral, Fla./Ida S. Baker) had nine digs, six set assists and a kill on the night.
The new energy brought by the arrival of first-year head coach Jason Barshinger was echoed by both the team and its fans in the victory, one that pushed the Golden Bears to a .500 record on the young season and over its win total from a season ago. It also marked the 11th consecutive victory against Bowie State, as KU has defeated the Bulldogs each of the past seven times the teams have met at Keystone Arena.
The Shannon Sullivan Memorial Tournament opened with California (Pa.) sweeping Caldwell, 3-0, in the first game of the six-match tournament.
The tournament resumes tomorrow with four matches from Keystone Arena, two of which will feature the Golden Bears. Bowie State and Cal will meet at 11 a.m. before Kutztown faces Cal at 1:30 p.m. Caldwell and Bowie State will follow with a 4 p.m. match, and Kutztown and Caldwell will close out the night at 6 p.m.
