Box Score
GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Nicole Barr (Annapolis, MD/Broadneck) notched four of her career-high 26 kills in the fifth game to lift Gettysburg to a 15-5 game-five victory and a 3-2 win over visiting Franklin & Marshall in Centennial Conference (CC) volleyball action on Tuesday.
The Bullets (16-2, 5-0 CC) won game one easily 30-20 before taking a 2-0 match lead with a 30-27 game-two victory before the Diplomats (9-4, 4-1 CC) made their comeback. F&M won a closely contested game three 34-32 and took game four 30-27 to force the deciding game.
Barr, the CC Co-Player of the Week, completed the double-double with 17 digs. Jessica Cortese (Lancaster, PA/Hempfield) also notched a double-double with 13 kills and 12 digs while Erin Barkdoll (Dover, PA/Dover) was a dig shy, ending with 13 kills and nine digs.
Kayleen Bailey led the Diplomat attack with 11 kills. Nicole Kushman and Elizabeth Earll added nine kills apiece.
Erica Rau (Oakland Park, FL/Pine Crest) put down the first kill of game five to give the hosts a 1-0 advantage. Back-to-back Gettysburg errors gave Franklin & Marshall a 2-1 lead, but it would be short lived.
Barr killed a Shannan Smith (Milmont Park, PA/Ridley) set to knot the game a 2-all. A Rau ace – her fourth of the match – and back-to-back kills by Barkdoll opened up a 5-2 cushion for the Bullets.
A Gettysburg service error closed the gap to 9-4, but successive kills by Barr, Cortese and Katie Heffner (Easton, PA/Easton) got the lead back to 12-4. Meghan Baker had one of the Diplomat's two kills in game five to make it 12-5. The Bullets had the answer, though. Heffner, Barr and Cortese closed out the game and the match, extending Gettysburg's current winning streak to 14 in a row and 43 of 46 over the last two seasons.
Behind strong serving from Cortese and Smith in game three, the Bullets opened a 6-1 lead and were well on the way to a sweep, but the Diplomats had other plans.
After the side-out and back-to-back kills from Earll, F&M closed the gap to 6-4 before taking a 7-6 lead on three straight Gettysburg errors.
The Diplomats stretched the advantage to 24-19 and were clinging to a 29-26 lead when Margaret Hallahan (Huntingdon, PA/Huntingdon) served three consecutive points, including one of her match-high five aces, to tie the game at 29-all.
With the score knotted at 32, back-to-back Gettysburg attacking errors gave Franklin & Marshall the game.
Riding their momentum from the game-three victory, the Diplomats kept things even at 10-all before the Bullets went on a 4-0 spurt to open up a 14-10 lead.
Two Bailey aces brought F&M to within one.
With the game tied at 16, Baker recorded back-to-back kills to give the Diplomats an 18-16 lead they did not relinquish en route to the 30-27 win.
In game one, Cortese, Smith and Rau combined to serve 12 of the first 14 points to give Gettysburg an 12-2 lead, and the Bullets staved off a late-game rally for the 30-20 victory.
With game two knotted at 15, a side-out handed the ball to Smith with Gettysburg up one. A Barkdoll kill made it 17-15, but attacking errors by Franklin & Marshall on two of the next three points gave the Bullets a 19-16 cushion.
Bailey pulled the Diplomats within 22-21, but Cortese responded with a kill to stretch the lead back to 23-21. Another Gettysburg attacking error – its 11th of the game – three points later gave F&M hope, serving down 24-23.
Barr immediately thwarted any attempt at a comeback with one of her nine kills in the game.
The Diplomats refused to go quietly. Still trailing by two at 27-25, Bailey served three points, including her only ace of the game, to knot the score at 27. However, an F&M service error sandwiched between Barr's final two kills of the game gave the Bullets the 30-27 victory and 2-0 match lead.
Jackie Skibble finished with 38 assists for Franklin & Marshall while Meghan Godorov led three Diplomats in double-figure digs with 36.
Smith tallied 57 assists for the Bullets while Steph Vial (Hanover, PA/Delone Catholic) recorded 24 digs, leading five players in double figures. As a team, Gettysburg recorded 101 digs – its second match this season over 100 digs.
Heffner added six block assists for the Bullets, who improved to 3-0 in five-game matches this year.
The Bullets returns to action on Saturday at home against Washington. Match time is 1 p.m.
Gettysburg def. Franklin & Marshall, 3-2 (30-20, 30-27, 32-34, 27-30, 15-5)
Gettysburg Leaders:
Kills: Nicole Barr 26, Erin Barkdoll 13, Jessica Cortese 13; Assists: Shannan Smith 57; Service Aces: Margaret Hallahan 5, Erica Rau 4; Digs: Steph Vial 24, Smith 18, Barr 17, Cortese 12, Hallahan 12; Blocks: Katie Heffner 6, Barr 4.
Franklin & Marshall Leaders:
Kills: Kayleen Bailey 11, Nicole Kushman 9, Liz Earll 9; Assists: Jackie Skibbie 38; Service Aces: Bailey 4, Kushman 2, Meghan Godorov 2; Digs: Godorov 36, Skibbie 13, Kushman 11, Jenna Walck 10; Blocks: Meghan Baker 2, Susan Taylor 2.
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