Lions fall in three sets at King's College

Wilkes-Barre, Pa. - Hazleton fell to 4-2 on the season with a 3-0 road loss at King's College on Monday night. King's narrowly out-hit the Lions, totaling 36 kills compared to 29 for the Hazleton squad, but the real damage came in the service department with King's putting pressure on the receiving core of Hazleton to the tune of 14 aces. 

Hazleton started off in the driver's seat with freshman Jadyn Hooper (Mt. Top, Pa.) sending in three aces and helping the Lions to a 7-0 advantage out of the gates. That lead would quickly evaporate as King's forced a sideout and proceeded on an 18-2 run to erase the deficit and build a healthy lead of their own. King's dominated the remainder of the set with a potent service game, notching eight aces in the frame to take a 1-0 lead over the Lions by the score of 25-15. 

King's continued to roll as the second set began, running ahead to a ten point cushion midway through the frame but Hazleton regained their composure and responded well for the remainder of the night. Freshman Sydney Mack (Baltimore, Md.) registered eight of her team high 10 kills in the final two sets of the night and Lions combined for 24 of their 29 total kills over that same stretch. Hazleton narrowed the gap in the second set but the early struggles were too much to overcome, falling into a 0-2 deficit by the score of 25-20. In the end, King's was just a touch sharper than the young Nittany Lion squad. Set three would go back and forth in the early stages until a late 11-4 run by the home team closed out the contest 25-15. 

Game leaders included 12 kills by King's hitter Kathy Shepherd on just 23 attempts with setter Adriana Conforti totaling 18 assists with a game-high six aces to her credit. Mack set the pace for Hazleton with her 10 kills on the night with Hooper totaling five kills and four aces in the loss. Freshman Mackenzie Riccardi (Mountain Lakes, Nj.) totaled a game-high 19 assists with freshman Alayna Welsh (Greencastle, Pa.) leading all players in the contest with 17 digs defensively. 

Next up: Hazleton is back in action on Wednesday, September 21 when the Nittany Lions travel to Dunmore, Pa. to take on conference foe, Penn State Scranton at 7:00 p.m.