Penn State Behrend Wins
2008 ECAC South Volleyball Championship
The Penn State Behrend volleyball team captured the 2008 ECAC Division III South
Volleyball Championship, taking the title after a come-from-behind 3-2 win
over runner-up Cabrini College on November 16 in Stevenson, Maryland.
Behrend (25-9) dropped a tight first game 24-26, before bouncing back for a
25-21 win in the second. Cabrini (22-14) answered with a 25-21 win of
its own in the third game before Behrend took the fourth 25-19 to set
up the winner-take-all fifth game. The deciding game was tied 8-8
before the blue and white exploded for a 7-1 run to close it out, clinching
the title with a 15-9 win and starting the celebration.
Senior defensive specialist Brittany Hennessy (Hopewell/Hopewell) closed out
her career by racking up a match-high 30 digs in the championship match.
Hennessy, Behrend's all-time leader in digs with 2,160 in her career, was
awarded the ECAC Most Outstanding Player award for the tournament.
Junior Brooke Gallentine (Mt. Pleasant/Southmoreland) dished out a
season-high 51 assists, to go with ten digs and three aces, with a big
ace at the end of game five.
Freshman Lauren Dalton (Cochranton/Cochranton) hammered 15 kills in the
match, including four winners in the fifth game. Junior hitters
Carissa Johnston (Cambridge Springs/Cambridge Springs) and Sheila Ogden
(Grove City/Grove City) were a big part of the offense as Johnston had 12
kills and Ogden had 11 kills in the final. Sophomore Danielle Woods
(Pittsburgh/Baldwin) played huge down the stretch and totaled ten kills with
17 digs against the Cavaliers. Freshmen Liz Emerick
(Hopewell/Hopewell) and Stefanie Kelley (Moon Township/Moon) came through
with key plays and combined for 23 digs and six aces.
One day earlier, in the ECAC semifinal match on November 15, #3 seed Behrend
cruised past #2 seed Widener 3-0 (25-16, 25-18, 25-18) hitting .270 as a
team. Freshman Danielle Kindle (Erie/McDowell) smashed eight kills on
16 attempts with zero errors and also tallied five blocks. Johnston
had ten kills to go with six blocks of her own, while Hennessy finished with
23 digs. Freshman Kait Bianco (Aliquippa/Center) smacked five kills on
ten attempts in the win over Widener (26-10).
In the second semifinal #4 seed Cabrini College upset host and #1 seed
Stevenson University with a 3-0 win (25-20, 25-23, 25-22) to set up the
championship contest with the Behrend Lions.
The ECAC volleyball championship is the first for the Penn State Behrend
volleyball program, and this was the team's second ever tournament
appearance. In 2006, the blue and white won a
school-record 29 matches and went 2-1 in the ECAC South Championship to
finish as the runners-up.