BOXSCORE

Wilkes University came back from a two-game deficit to take a 3-2 (18-25, 28-30, 25-18, 25-22, 15-11) Freedom Conference win over King's College, marking the first time the Lady Colonels have defeated the Lady Monarchs since 2004. 

           
All five of Wilkes hitters had at least 10 kills with Marissa Harrison (Shavertown, Pa./Lake-Lehman) leading the way with a career-high 22 kills. The Lady Colonels tallied a season-high 73 kills, hitting .214 for the match, while libero Allison Kelleher (Sayre, Pa./Athens Area) had a career-high 27 digs in the win. 

           
Harrison was one of four players to record a double-double with 10 digs to go along with her offensive performance. Katherine Herrington chipped in with 14 kills and 21 digs as well as three block assists. “In warm ups I felt good and was hitting the ball hard and that carried over to the game,” Harrison said. In 13 matches thus far, Harrison has had at least 10 kills in seven contests and now has three double-doubles on the season. 

           
“We prepared for them. We knew what we had to do to win,” head coach Alicia Orlowski said. “We just wanted to control the things we could control and eliminate as many mistakes as we could.” 

           
In the first game, the Lady Monarchs could do no wrong as they had 11 kills with just one error. The Lady Colonels led 10-7 after a kill by Julie Page (New Milford, Pa./Blue Ridge), but King's used a 5-0 run to take a 12-10 lead. A kill by Emily DeBuck (Pine Island, N.Y./Warwick Valley) broke a 16-16 tie to give the Lady Colonels a brief lead, but a 9-1 run by King's gave the Lady Monarchs the early match lead. 

           
In the second game, both teams exchanged points with King's holding the lead through the first half of the contest. Wilkes used a 6-1 run to take a 15-13 advantage after a kill by Harrison. The score would be tied 10 more times before back-to-back kills by Kings' Kailtyn Malshefski gave the Lady Monarchs a 30-28 win. Malshefski finished with 10 kills, while Kat Clerici had 15 in the effort.   

           
Like the second game, both teams would exchanged points and eventually found themselves tied at 10 after an attack error by Wilkes. The Lady Colonels would only have three more errors in the game and a 9-2 run propelled them to a 19-12 lead. The Lady Monarchs threatened with a 5-2 run to pull within four (21-17), but Wilkes answered with a 4-1 run of its own to win the game 25-18. 

           
Six of Harrison's 22 kills came in the fourth game in the Lady Colonels' 25-22 win. Wilkes had 15 errors with just two errors on 43 attacks. Wilkes jumped out to a 10-5 lead, but the Lady Monarchs battled back to tie the game at 18 on a kill by Kline. Page broke a 21-21 tie with one of her 11 kills on the night to give the Lady Colonels the lead for good. They never trailed again the rest of the match.

           
In the fifth and deciding game, Wilkes raced to a 7-3 after a kill by Harrison, but King's answered and pulled within two (10-12) on a Wilkes service error, but would come no closer. A kill by Page gave Wilkes a 15-11 win, marking its first come-from-behind win of the season. 

           
“This was the ultimate display of teamwork. Everybody that played chipped in and did what they had to do,” Orlowski said.